Patch Poll: Did Steve King Mean to Insult Immigrants When He Compared Them to Dogs?

Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King is no stranger to controversy.

He's most recently taken for references to puppies and immigrants that some have said were racist.

But his communications director said that the quote was taken out of context, and that King was speaking highly of immigrants and their aggressive pursuit of the American dream.

So, we'll leave it up to you to decide. Read the full quote below, taken during a speech in Humbolt last week, and vote for whether you think Steve King was insulting, or whether the controversy is overblown.

"You put out a beacon like the Statue of Liberty and who comes here? The most vigorous from every country that has donated legal immigrants to America. The cream of the crop. We’ve always had bird dogs around our place. In our family there’s a black lab and white lab a yellow lab, and my brother has a chocolate lab. Well you go in and you look at a litter of pups, and you watch them. You watch how they play. They run around a little bit. And, what do you want? You want a good bird dog, and you want one that’s gonna be aggressive? Pick the one that’s the friskiest, the one that’s in games the most. Not the one that’s over there sleeping in the corner. You want a pet to sit on the couch, pick the one that’s sleeping in the corner? That’s — so, you get the pick of the litter, you got yourself a pretty good bird dog. We got the pick of every donor civilization on the planet because it’s hard to get here. You had to be inspired to come. We got the vigor from the planet to come to America. Whichever generation it was, and then we taught our children that same thing."