The White House today waded into a controversy over revelations that U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana—the House’s No. 3 Republican—spoke to a white supremacist group in Metairie 12 years ago.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest repeatedly said Scalise once described himself as “David Duke without the baggage.” As The Associated Press reports, a reporter for the New Orleans Advocate newspaper has said Scalise made the remark to her as he was starting out in the Louisiana Legislature nearly 20 years ago. Scalise’s office did not immediately respond to calls for comment from The AP.
Earnest said it’s up to Republicans to decide whether he retains his position and what that says about their party.
“There is no arguing that who Republicans decide to elevate into a leadership position says a lot about what the conference’s priorities and values are,” Earnest said.
The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also issued statements today attacking Scalise as Democrats sought to fan the controversy a day before Republicans formally assumed control of Congress.
“As the new Congress begins, nothing discredits Republican claims of outreach and bringing people together more than their decision to keep Steve Scalise at the top tier of the elected leadership of their caucus,” said DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
The controversy was sparked last week when a liberal Louisiana blogger uncovered Scalise’s speech to a 2002 Louisiana convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, which called itself EURO. Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke founded the group, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a hate group.
Scalise moved quickly to distance himself from the group. He said he opposes its views and that as a state legislator he didn’t have much staffing at the time and didn’t always know details of the groups he was invited to address. He said the speech was a mistake he now regrets, and party leaders have backed him. Read the full story.
