High-ranking House Republican under fire for speech to white supremacists

The No. 3 Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, delivered a speech at a conference of white supremacists when he was a state lawmaker in 2002, it has emerged. The revelation has led to calls that the congressman step down and could put a crimp in Republican efforts to reach out to minorities in 2016.

Scalise served in the Louisiana Legislature when he appeared in 2002 at a convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO), which was founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). 

The SPLC described the group, which hosted the now-defunct website WhiteCivilRights.com, as a "paper tiger" that served "primarily as a vehicle to publicize Duke’s writing and sell his books."

On Monday, Scalise's office denied any connection to EURO. The representative's aide Moira Bagley Smith said in a statement that Scalise “has never been affiliated with the abhorrent group in question.” 

"The hate-fueled ignorance and intolerance that group projects is in stark contradiction to what Mr. Scalise believes and practices as a father, a husband and a devoted Catholic," the statement read. 

Scalise also responded to the controversy himself, telling the New Orleans-based Times-Picayune newspaper on Monday that he had no involvement with the group and does not recall speaking at the event.

"I didn't know who all of these groups were, and I detest any kind of hate group. For anyone to suggest that I was involved with a group like that is insulting and ludicrous," Scalise said. 

But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) criticized Scalise in a statement on Tuesday and questioned why the GOP leadership has remained silent.

"Steve Scalise chose to cheerlead for a group of KKK members and neo-Nazis at a white supremacist rally, and now his fellow House Republican Leaders can't even speak up and say he was wrong," said DCCC national press secretary Josh Schwerin.

Erick Erickson, a prominent conservative blogger, expressed skepticism that Scalise was unaware of EURO's agenda at the time of the conference.

"How the hell does somebody show up at a David Duke organized event in 2002 and claim ignorance?" Erickson wrote on his RedState blog.

Likewise Mark Potok of the SPLC said Scalise's claims of ignorance was "almost impossible to believe." 

In an interview with the Washington Post, fellow Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa said he was standing by Scalise, saying "I know he is a good man."

"Jesus dined with tax collectors and sinners," King told the Post. "It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, it’s the sick. Given that piece of Scripture, and understanding that Scalise probably wasn’t staffed thoroughly, I could understand how something like this happened."

The news comes just days before a new Congress convenes, with Scalise poised to help shape House Republicans' agenda in his first full term as whip.

It also comes as American voters demonstrate increasing racial polarization in their political preferences, with white majorities siding overwhelmingly with Republicans in the 2014 midterms and non-whites continuing their strong support for Democrats. Many strategists say both parties must figure out how to reach beyond their respective bases.

Scalise, 49, ascended to his leadership post in June in the chain of events that followed then–Majority Leader Eric Cantor's surprise defeat in a Republican primary.

Scalise won the whip race with the solid backing of House conservatives, particularly Southerners who wanted a greater leadership voice considering the region's role in giving Republicans their largest House majority since President Herbert Hoover's administration at the start of the Great Depression.

Al Jazeera and wire services