Rep Steve King spent $18,000 at private GOP club, sent taxpayers the bill

Steve King is a virulent, ardent, violent, authoritarian member of the international white supremacy movement, but he is still welcome in respectable Republican circles, thanks to his frequent and loud denunciations of government waste and his calls for austerity.

King is a member of the Capitol Hill Club, a private members' club for Republican operators, where a chicken dinner costs $49. Since 2004, King has been dining lavishly at the Capitol Hill Club, but he hasn't been paying for it: he's been expensing those $49 chickens and a hefty bar bill to the US taxpayer.

King is pretty modest, compared to some of his GOP colleagues: recently indicted fraudster Rep. Duncan Hunter [R-CA] spent $138,666 of his donors' money there.

At least some of the expenses at the club appear to be connected to events hosted by the Conservative Opportunity Society, a congressional caucus King has led since 2015. The group meets on Wednesday mornings for breakfast, typically at the Capitol Hill Club. The group has used the taxpayer-funded events to hear remarks from a variety of conservative celebrities and authors, such as anti-Muslim activist Brigitte Gabriel and neoconservative author Bill Kristol.

The only featured legislation on the Conservative Opportunity Society website is a single abortion restriction bill, one that is already supported by other anti-abortion causes. The relatively small caucus has little influence compared to other, more prominent conservative caucus groups, such as the Republican Study Committee or the Freedom Caucus. Nevertheless, King appears to have spent at least $14,000 on caucus-related events at the Capitol Hill Club over the last three years.

Rep. Steve King Spent $18,000 in Taxpayer Money on Food and Drinks at Private Club [Lee Fang/The Intercept]

(Image: John Phelan, CC-BY-SA)