The Egyptian government—a military regime facing criticism for jailing political opponents and journalists, and violently suppressing peaceful protests—has another fierce defender in Congress.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who just returned from a self-financed trip to the country, adamantly defended Egyptian President, Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sisi on Tuesday—a move made on CSPAN’s Washington Journal that leaves him vulnerable to accusations of hypocrisy.
King did appear unbothered by any such charge. When asked about proposed anti-terror laws that criminalize acts of free speech in Egypt, he said many countries around the world, including Canada, prosecute people for what they say—a misleading claim that equates hate speech with political speech.
More troubling to King is what he claimed was the administration’s tacit support for the Muslim Brotherhood—a political party that secured a majority in Egyptian elections in 2012 only to be deposed in a 2013 coup led by Sisi. The party has since been outlawed, and many of its prominent members—including the only freely elected leader of Egypt in its history, Mohammed Morsi—were jailed.
“I’m more concerned about that than I am about the concern about the freedom of speech that might be infringed by American standards in Egypt today,” King said.
“Let’s take this one step at a time,” he added, urging patience. “Stabilizing Egypt is more important right now and then let’s go on and push for the freedom of speech and assembly.”
King’s dismissal elicited an angry response from one caller to the program who accused the US government of having a double standard on human rights abuses.
“Sisi toppled the government and he came into power,” the caller told King, pushing back against claims from the lawmaker that Sisi is the “duly elected President of Egypt.” The former head of the Egyptian military did win more than 96% of the vote in a 2014 election, but it was one that saw most of his political opponents jailed or intimidated prior to his victory.
“There’s always a confusion because you’re saying Sisi is good, while the president of Venezuela is bad for locking up its political opponents,” the caller said.
“This type of confusion lends itself to us as Americans being criticized in foreign countries,” he added. “At some point in time, you have to be even-handed in your criticism.”
This month, the Obama administration sanctioned members of the Maduro government in Venezuela, called its leaders a national security threat, and leveled allegations that it is engaged in a campaign to jail political opponents.
King declined the caller’s invite to weigh in on the administration’s posture toward Venezuela.
Another caller pressed King about US military assistance to Egypt being used to suppress the Egyptian people. During the 2011 Egyptian revolution that deposed then-President Mubarak Hosni, teargas canisters used against protestors were emblazoned with “Made in the U.S.A.” markings, which made for embarrassing optics.
Here, too, King was unconcerned.
“Anytime that we would say to a country you have to guarantee that the military equipment that we send you or sell you isn’t going to be used against your own people – that’s a pretty difficult guarantee to secure,” he claimed, noting that instead policymakers should trust Sisi’s “motives.”
The comment showed little concern for or even awareness of the so-called Leahy Amendment, a federal law that forbids the US government from offering assistance to foreign governments that systematically infringe upon human rights. King, however, was more concerned about debate on moral grounds—even if they are imagined.
“He doesn’t have any motive to attack the Egyptian people, in fact he has a powerful motive to protect and defend them,” King claimed, apparently unaware of the blood that’s routinely shed in the streets, when security forces brutalize anti-Sisi protestors.
King seemed content with personal guarantees he has received from Egypt’s rulers. He reminisced about an exchange he had with Sisi over a year and a half ago, in which he secured a promise from Sisi that the Egypt would not fall under military rule—known in Egypt as the “Deep State.”
“I asked him…will the Egyptian military take orders from a legitimate civilian government and his answer was, ‘yes we will,’” King recalled, before admitting, “I didn’t really have an expectation that he would be president of the civilian government.”
Also of note, King paid for his trip to Egypt out of his own pocket after a planned Congressional delegation to the country, financed on the taxpayers’ dime, was canceled by Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio).
In January, King voted against Boehner for Speaker at the beginning of the 114th Congress. He suggested that retribution was one reason why the delegation to Egypt was cancelled.
“One can only speculate,” King said, but “it doesn’t make sense to rationalize it any other way than the speaker is seeking to impose his will on this sovereign member of congress.”
