Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the newly elected House majority whip, acknowledged Monday that he spoke at a gathering hosted by white nationalist leaders while serving as a state representative in 2002, thrusting a racial controversy into House Republican ranks days before the party assumes control of both congressional chambers.
The 48-year-old Scalise, who ascended to the House GOP’s third-ranking post earlier this year, confirmed through an adviser that he once appeared at a convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization.
That organization, founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Beyond hosting a Web site, whitecivilrights.com, and staging an occasional conference, EURO is a paper tiger, serving primarily as a vehicle to publicize Duke’s writing and sell his books,” the SPLC writes on its Web site.
In a statement, Scalise’s spokesperson Moira Bagley emphasized that the then-state lawmaker was unaware at the time of the group’s ideology and its association with racists and neo-Nazi activists.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) says he won a three-way race for majority whip because his coalition was united, and says his election is "a win for America." (The Associated Press)
Other Scalise allies, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, argued that Scalise was poorly staffed during the period, when he was busy touring the state promoting his efforts to curb state spending.
“Throughout his career in public service, Mr. Scalise has spoken to hundreds of different groups with a broad range of viewpoints,” Bagley said. “In every case, he was building support for his policies, not the other way around. In 2002, he made himself available to anyone who wanted to hear his proposal to eliminate slush funds that wasted millions of taxpayer dollars as well as his opposition to a proposed tax increase on middle-class families.”
She added, “He 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.”
Scalise’s political circle worked furiously late Monday to quell the storm, with his confidants e-mailing reporters and House members, assuring them that Scalise did not know the implications of his actions in 2002, and described him as a disorganized and ill-prepared young politician who didn’t pay close attention to invitations.
“It was a crazy time and I doubt there was a lot of checking up on who was who,” e-mailed one former Scalise adviser, who like others requested anonymity to discuss the matter. “It really wasn’t until 2004 that he started sitting down and evaluating speaking engagements and questionnaires. Even then he really didn’t get a handle on schedule until he ran for state senate in 2007 and then congress the year after.”
Scalise’s appearance at the event was first reported by blogger Lamar White Jr., who manages a Web site on Louisiana politics.
White’s post, which was published Sunday, said that Scalise spoke at the Landmark Best Western Hotel in Metairie, La., a suburb of New Orleans, in May 2002, as a part of a two-day conference.
“Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, former Louisiana State Representative, and former Republican candidate for Louisiana governor, was attempting to rebrand his movement into something more palatable and less incendiary, and the ambiguous-sounding EURO seemed to do the trick,” White wrote.
White also included an image of an invitation to the convention, which advertised discounted $89 per night rooms for the “workshop on civil rights.”
Scalise’s aides said due to the unavailability of Scalise’s schedule from that year, they did not have details to share about his appearance or remarks, but said he was a frequent speaker at a variety of events at that hotel—a hotspot for New Orleans-area conventions.
Scalise’s defense — that he was not fully cognizant of the group’s leanings and the nature of the meeting — contrasts with the local press coverage generated by the Duke-coordinated conclave that spring.
The Gambit Weekly, an alternative publication in New Orleans, wrote days before the conference that the hotel distanced itself from Duke’s group and expressed its discomfort.
“A contract to book this event was made some time ago, and it is our practice to fulfill our contractual obligations,” a company spokesperson told the publication. “Our company does not share the views of this organization.”
The Iowa Cubs, a minor-league baseball team, also told the Gambit Weekly that they were concerned about housing their players, which included several African-Americans, at that hotel while traveling to Louisiana.
“I’m glad we’re staying away from it,” says Cubs coach Pat Listach, in an interview earlier that month. “I wouldn’t have been comfortable staying there.”
The Duke group drew additional headlines nationally in the weeks before the Louisiana meeting. In mid-May 2002, USA Today reported that the organization was active in South Carolina and had “picketed” there to support the Confederate flag flying on state Capitol grounds.
Months earlier, in February 2002, the Washington Post reported that Duke’s group was organizing in Virginia and “demanding that black teenagers be prosecuted for hate crimes against whites.”
Former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour (R), said in an interview Monday that Duke’s views are “awful and indefensible and wrong,” but declined to comment on Scalise’s situation.
“David Duke tried to lead the GOP in the wrong direction and he failed miserably,” said Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee. “He is somebody who tried to revive his career as a Ku Klux Klan leader when so few people were willing to follow that banner. The press lionized him and made it sound like he had a big following, but he did not.”
Several lawmakers in both parties contacted late Monday declined to speak publicly on the matter, saying that they wouldn’t comment until they have read more about the situation and assessed the political fallout.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.), a rising star in the Democratic Party considered among the most prominent Hispanics in Congress, said that if the incident is true, it “raises serious questions about the judgment of an elected official who would eagerly agree to join a group like that for an event.”
“It’s hard to believe, given David Duke’s reputation in Louisiana, that somebody in politics in Louisiana wasn’t aware of Duke’s associations with the group and what they stand for,” Castro said in a phone interview. “If that’s the case and he agreed to join them for their event, then I think it’s a real test for Speaker Boehner as to whether Congressman Scalise should remain in Republican leadership.”
It is not yet known whether video of Scalise’s comments from 2002 is available and his office said it does not have documentation related to his time at the meeting.
Reacting online, some conservatives sounded surprised that the low-key Scalise, who is known for his hard-line politics and easy demeanor, was drawing intense national scrutiny. And they wondered aloud how the congressman had ended up at the event.
“How do you show up at a David Duke Event and not know what it is,” said Erick Erickson, a RedState blogger, in a Twitter message.
In the months since voters handed control of Congress to Republicans, top GOP leaders have been eagerly projecting the sense of a fresh start and new management on Capitol Hill as the new session convenes next week. But the news about Scalise, coupled with the unrelated legal troubles of two other GOP lawmakers, could disrupt those plans.
Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), who represents Staten Island, pleaded guilty last week to felony tax fraud, but has said that he will not resign, despite calls from Democrats that he step down. And Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.) has been accused by a fired former staffer of creating a hostile work environment. The staffer has filed a lawsuit claiming the congressman “regularly drank to excess” and made sexually inappropriate comments to another co-worker.
Shortly after Election Day when Republicans took control of the Senate and expanded the House GOP majority to the largest it’s been since the 1920s, Scalise told reporters that he was excited to help lead “one of the most diverse Congresses we’ve ever had.”
“I’m excited about that opportunity to help be a part of this leadership team that’s stronger than ever and more focused on the problems this country is facing and working to get our country back on track,” he added.
Scalise’s associations with a white supremacist group might also create immediate problems for at least two members of the expanded Republican majority.
For the first time in several years, the House GOP conference will include two black members -- Mia Love, a former small town Utah mayor, who defeated a longtime Democratic incumbent to represent a Salt Lake City-area district; and Will Hurd, a former CIA operative, who will represent a swing district stretching from San Antonio to El Paso. They both cast their candidacies as historic while party leaders embraced them as examples of the Republican Party’s broadening appeal.
Manuel Roig-Franzia contributed to this story.
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