A leading conservative is among the harshest critics of Republican House Majority Whip Steve Scalise for speaking to a white supremacist group in 2002.
Democrats have condemned the Louisianan and No. 3 House Republican, but their rhetoric has been more tempered.
Erick Erickson, editor of the conservative website RedState, rejected Scalise’s explanation that he didn’t know that European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO) was a white nationalist group led by David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and a former Louisiana state representative.
“How do you not know? How do you not investigate?” Erickson wrote on the website. “David Duke is the reason I am no longer a resident of Louisiana. After supporting Edwin Edwards in the gubernatorial race against David Duke in 1991, I knew I had to get the hell out of a state where those were the two most popular choices.”
“Everybody knew Duke was still the man he had claimed not to be. EVERYBODY.
“How the hell does somebody show up at a David Duke organized event in 2002 and claim ignorance?”
Louisiana Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond defended Scalise, telling the New Orleans Times-Picayune; “I don’t think Steve Scalise has a racist bone in his body.”
Richmond, who is black, added, “Steve and I have worked on issues that benefit poor people, black people, white people, Jewish people. I know his character.”
Drew Hammill, spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called Scalise’s actions “deeply troubling” in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
He condemned the entire House GOP agenda, saying, “actions speak louder than whatever Steve Scalise said to that group in 2002.
“Just this year, House Republicans have refused to restore the Voting Rights Act or pass comprehensive immigration reform, and leading Republican members are now actively supporting in the federal courts efforts by another known extremist group, the American Center for Law and Justice, which is seeking to overturn the president’s immigration executive actions.”
Scalise, in an interview with the Times-Picayune, defended his speech, saying that he didn’t know what group he was speaking to.
“I didn’t know who all of these groups were and I detest any kind of hate group,” he said. “For anyone to suggest that I was involved with a group like that is insulting and ludicrous.”
