GOP congressman refuses to apologize for retweet of neo-Nazi

(CNN) - U.S. Rep. Steve King isn't backing down from criticism of sharing a Nazi sympathizer's message on Twitter.

The Republican from Iowa retweeted Mark Collett, a self-admitted neo-Nazi. He said he intended to retweet a Breitbart story.

"I went back a little bit later when some folks pointed this out, and I went and got the tiny URL and I tweeted the Breitbart story off their website and said, 'This is what I intended to send,'" King said. "I'm not deleting that because then you'll all pile on me and say, 'King had to apologize. He was wrong; he knew he was guilty.'

"I'm not. I don't feel guilty one bit; I'm human."

King said he didn't know Collett's background at the time.

"I have no idea who he is," King said. "I don't know why we're giving him a world-famous name now into the news. I'm not obligated to do a full background check on anybody."

The office of House Speaker Paul Ryan addressed the issue Tuesday. A statement said, in part: "The speaker has said many times that Nazis have no place in our politics."

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