House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana issued a statement today addressing the mounting scandal regarding a speech he gave to a white supremacist group in 2002, saying he regrets speaking at the event and condemns the views of such groups.
Scalise says that as a state legislator in 2002 he spoke to many groups about a major tax issue.
“One of the many groups that I spoke to regarding this critical legislation was a group whose views I wholeheartedly condemn,” Scalise says in the statement. “It was a mistake I regret, and I emphatically oppose the divisive racial and religious views groups like these hold.”
Republican leaders came to the defense of Scalise today, while Democratic groups criticized him and some called for his resignation.
The Associated Press reports that House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said Scalise “made an error in judgment, and he was right to acknowledge it was wrong and inappropriate.” Boehner added Scalise “has my full confidence as our Whip.”
Scalise acknowledged he spoke at a convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization. Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke founded the group, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a hate group.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee criticized Scalise in an earlier statement today, saying he “chose to cheerlead for a group of KKK members and neo-Nazis at a white supremacist rally,” and questioned why the GOP leadership had remained silent.
Scalise’s statement today does not deal with the issue of weak staffing and sketchy knowledge of his audiences in 2002. However, Scalise, who is Catholic, says: “these groups hold views that are vehemently opposed to my own personal faith, and I reject that kind of hateful bigotry.”
The Associated Press has the full story.
