New whip regrets white-group speech

Scalise addressed supremacy set in ’02

In this Nov. 18, 2014 file photo, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of La., right, with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., left, and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, following a House GOP caucus meeting. Scalise acknowledged that he once addressed a gathering of white supremacists. Scalise served in the Louisiana Legislature when he appeared at a 2002 convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization. Now he is the third-highest ranked House Republican in Washington.
In this Nov. 18, 2014 file photo, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of La., right, with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., left, and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, following a House GOP caucus meeting. Scalise acknowledged that he once addressed a gathering of white supremacists. Scalise served in the Louisiana Legislature when he appeared at a 2002 convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization. Now he is the third-highest ranked House Republican in Washington.

Correction: Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond is the only black in Louisiana’s congressional delegation. An article in Wednesday’s editions about Republican Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who spoke to a white supremacist group more than a decade ago and said this week that the speech “was a mistake I regret,” incorrectly stated that Richmond will be the only black in Congress when the new Congress convenes next week.

WASHINGTON -- Third-ranking House Republican Steve Scalise said Tuesday that his 2002 speech to a white supremacy group "was a mistake I regret," and House Speaker John Boehner said he continues to support the Louisiana congressman.

"More than a decade ago, Rep. Scalise made an error in judgment, and he was right to acknowledge it was wrong and inappropriate," Boehner said in an emailed statement. "I know Steve to be a man of high integrity and good character. He has my full confidence as our whip."

Scalise said he rejects the "hateful bigotry" of the group he addressed 12 years ago, the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, founded by David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

"I emphatically oppose the divisive racial and religious views groups like these hold," Scalise said.

Elected by House Republicans this year to the leadership post of House majority whip, the congressman is facing criticism over his appearance at the event in Metairie, La., while he was a state lawmaker.

Scalise said he spoke to many groups as a state representative in his efforts to cut wasteful government spending and stop tax increases.

"One of the many groups that I spoke to regarding this critical legislation was a group whose views I wholeheartedly condemn. It was a mistake I regret," he said in the statement.

Other Republican leaders defended Scalise within minutes.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California said Scalise "acknowledged he made a mistake and has condemned the views that organization espouses. I've known him as a friend for many years, and I know that he does not share the beliefs of that organization."

Scalise also won an endorsement Monday from Rep. Cedric Richmond, who will be Louisiana's only Democrat and the only black in Congress when the new Congress convenes next week.

Richmond told NOLA.com, "I don't think Steve Scalise has a racist bone in his body." He said he has worked closely with Scalise, and "I am not going to let them use Steve as a scapegoat to score political points when I know him and know his family."

Louisiana's Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, also defended the congressman.

In an interview Monday with The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and NOLA.com, Scalise said he had little staffing as a state legislator and didn't always know details of groups he was invited to address.

"I didn't know who all of these groups were, and I detest any kind of hate group," Scalise told the newspaper.

Duke said in a phone interview, "It would seem to me that he would have realized that it was our group."

"I mean, he knew me," Duke said. "But I can't swear to it."

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi's spokesman, Drew Hammill, said in a statement that Scalise's "involvement" with the group "is deeply troubling for a top Republican leader in the House."

Other Democrats ridiculed Scalise's statement that he didn't know he was speaking to a white supremacist group.

"He didn't know? The group was named the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, it was founded by David Duke, and he was invited by two of Duke's longtime associates," Democratic National Committee Communications Director Mo Elleithee said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Josh Schwerin, said in a statement that "Republicans are off to a banner start for their new Congress."

The support from Boehner and McCarthy bolsters Scalise's chances of remaining in his leadership job. So, too, does the reason Scalise was elected to the post in June.

Then chairman of the House's conservative Republican Study Committee, Scalise sold colleagues on the idea that leadership needed a red-state member to rectify an ideological and geographical imbalance. Boehner of Ohio and McCarthy of California represent states that voted for President Barack Obama in 2012, while Louisiana backed Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

Information for this article was contributed by Billy House and Michael C. Bender of Bloomberg News and by Charles Babington and Bill Barrow of The Associated Press.

A Section on 12/31/2014

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