; Whereas the contention that King reacted to the Times reporter’s use of the phrases white nationalist , white supremacist , and western civilization as pejoratives is supported by the body of the Times article itself; Whereas the article contains the following passage, likely written prior to the King interview: Elected to Congress in 2002, Mr. King attracted the attention of hate-watch groups like the Anti-Defamation League as he spoke increasingly about preserving Western Culture or Western Civilization . The groups consider those buzzwords that signal support to white nationalists, along with an obsession with birthrates and abortion rates among different ethnic groups. Doesn’t it make more sense that the reporter asked a question in which Western Civilization was linked with the offensive epithets, and King responded by wondering how it came to be that the meritorious phrase Western Civilization became a similar pejorative? Certainly, the answer he is alleged to have given fits with this belief; Whereas the point King was attempting to make about the left’s use of labels to smear conservatives, labels which now include even the concept of Western Civilization itself, is supported by Lexis-Nexis data. Beginning in 2016 there has been an explosive increase in the use of the labels White Supremacist , White Supremacy , White Nationalist , and White Nationalism . This squares closely with what Congressman King told Dave Price of WHO–TV regarding the phrase White Nationalist : It is a derogatory term today. I wouldn’t have thought so maybe a year or two or three ago. Today they use it as a derogatory term, and it implies that you are a racist. ; Whereas in his statement, King was trying to put into words his entirely accurate observation that the term white nationalist has been weaponized by the left against conservatives, and that its use in this form has markedly increased over the past several years