DNC: Scalise Explanation For White Nationalist Event Is Bogus

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La. gestures as he speaks at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., Friday, March 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
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House GOP Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) claims he didn’t realize that he was speaking at an event for a hate group in 2002, but not many completely believe that explanation.

“Yesterday, Steve Scalise tried to explain that he didn’t know he was speaking to a white supremacist group when he addressed them as a state legislator. Seriously? He didn’t know?” Democratic National Committee communications director Mo Elleithee said in a Monday statement. “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. It doesn’t get much more clear than that.”

Scalise spoke at a 2002 event for the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, a white nationalist group founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader and Louisiana representative David Duke.

Scalise explained that in 2002, he spoke for “any group that called,” which the DNC also decried as a lame excuse.

“Does he not believe that speaking to an anti-semitic hate group legitimizes them and elevates their racist and divisive existence? How abhorrent does a group have to be to decline their invitation?” Elleithee asked. “These questions are just the tip of the iceberg — Rep. Scalise and all of Republican leadership need to start giving some real answers soon.”

Red State editor Erick Erickson also said he didn’t believe that Scalise did not realize he was attending an event hosted by a white nationalist group.

“How the hell does somebody show up at a David Duke organized event in 2002 and claim ignorance?” Erickson wrote Monday evening.

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Notable Replies

  1. Someone please please please find a quote of him saying “moulinyan” or “moolie” please please please…

  2. It’s kind of amazing that a state representative was not in control of his agenda. He had an aide, probably the one who set up the appearance and wrote his remarks and now still another aide is explaining why Sleazy didn’t know where he was. He knows to show up for payday, and that’s what counts in his world.

  3. Claiming he didn’t know to whom he was speaking is admitting he’ll talk to anybody that promises a plane ticket and an audience and contributions? That’s the best he can come up with?

  4. They missed the money quote from this genius:

    "I spoke to the League of Women Voters, a pretty liberal group. … I still went and spoke to them.

    :smile:

  5. At some point, you’d think the Republican Party would ask themselves why this keeps happening, what is it about their ideology that again and again attracts white supremacist organizations. You’d think they’d be asking themselves why it is they’re losing Asian voters at an even higher percentage than Latinos and why they’re beginning to lose even Cuban voters. They can continue to blame Obama, Al Sharpton, and Eric Holder for racism today, but it doesn’t explain why and how these incidents keep happening on their side of the aisle.

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