steve king
Iowa congressman Steve King said diversity is not an American strength and got furiously slammed for it. REUTERS/Brian C. Frank

Republican Representative Steve King of Iowa said diversity is not America's strength and Twitter is furiously slamming him over the "disgusting" remark. On Friday (8 December), King quoted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who said that mixing cultures leads to a lower quality of life.

"Diversity is not our strength. Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, 'Mixing cultures will not lead to a higher quality of life but a lower one,'" King tweeted along with a link to an article by the Voice of Europe.

In a separate tweet, the outspoken critic of immigration wrote: "Assimilation has become a dirty word to the multiculturalist Left. Assimilation, not diversity, is our American strength."

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This isn't the first time King has spoken out against immigration and has made several controversial statements on the issue.

In March, he tweeted: "We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies." The statement immediately drew massive backlash and criticism from American politicians on both sides of the aisle. Last year, he questioned which other "subgroups" besides white people have contributed to civilization.

His latest statements come as the clock ticks down for Congress to pass a legislative fix for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, also known as Dreamers before the protections expire.

Twitter furiously blasted King over his "ignorant" anti-diversity tweets with many slamming it as "absolutely despicable" hateful rhetoric.

Walter Shaub, former director of the US Office of Government Ethics, tweeted out the profiles and work of several people of colour who were finalists for this year's Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals.

"How are you employed, much less a member of Congress?" Shaub tweeted.

British environmentalist and eco-explorer David Rothschild wrote: "You're out of touch with reality &society. Steve, you need to retire, stay inside while the world continues to diversify around you."

American marathon runner Dane Rauschenberg wrote: "As the beady-eyed slack-jawed spawn of whatever has polluted your gene pool, you are Exhibit A why a family tree should fork and culture should be a bouillabaisse of the best of all people, you mentally stunted simian."