Official PortraitRep. Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), one of the top-ranking member of the Republican congressional caucus, apparently admitted on Monday that he spoke at a white supremacist event more than a decade ago.
Confirming an earlier report by the website CenLamar.com, the Washington Post reported that the House majority whip copped to being a speaker at the 2002 event when he was then a state lawmaker.
The organization he allegedly spoke at, the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, has been championed by white supremacist and former Louisiana State. Rep. David Duke. The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented the group's ties to extremist statements.
In a more cautious statement issued to multiple media outlets on Monday, Scalise's spokeswoman said he would have been unaware of the group's white supremacist messaging if he had indeed spoken there.
"Throughout his career in public service, Mr. Scalise has spoken to hundreds of different groups with a broad range of viewpoints," said his spokeswoman, Moira Smith. "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."
Smith also condemned the group.
"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," she said.
The No. 3 House Republican was elected to his current post in June.