A blogger named Lamar White Jr. has busted House Majority Whip Steve Scalise for speaking at a white supremacy meeting back in 2002, the Washington Post reports. White revealed the shocking information on his blog, which is dedicated to reporting on the political scene in Louisiana. The group who hosted Scalise was originally founded by ex-KKK member David Duke and is called the European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO). It is widely known to promote the idea that whites are superior to people of other races.
According to reports, before he was elected, Scalise gave a speech to the organization, which has been labeled as a “hate group,” during the course of a multi-day conference in New Orleans. When confronted about White’s accusations, Scalise said via a spokesperson that he did, indeed, give the lecture to the white supremacy group. However, the spokesperson says that Scalise is not affiliated with the EURO organization and that the speech he gave there was to inform the audience about his plan to “eliminate slush funds that wasted millions of taxpayer dollars as well as his opposition to a proposed tax increase on middle-class families.”
Scalise’s spokesperson stated that Scalise has no ties to the “abhorrent group,” and indicated that the organization was “hate-fueled” and full of “ignorance and intolerance.” His spokesperson went on to say that Scalise does not share the same values as those who attended the white supremacy meeting.
Sources close to Scalise also quickly offered a defense. They said that Scalise was not aware of the leanings of the group because it was such a “crazy time” for him, and he did not have enough staff to properly vet all of his speaking engagements.
An advertisement for the conference, posted by White, shows that the intention of the event was to teach people how to become “civil rights” and “heritage” activists. The ad says the speakers at the event would be “activists” including Vincent Breeding, who White calls a “notorious racial provocateur and hate monger.”
White reports that a review of the event and of Scalise’s speech, written by an event attendee, speaks of Scalise’s remarks on the Housing and Urban Development Fund. Scalise reportedly stated that the Fund was nothing more than a fraudulent setup designed to “give-away” money and services based solely on race.
That reviewer went on to say that, via his speech, Scalise clearly showed his “support to issues that are of concern” to the white supremacy group. Blogger Lamar White Jr. says that he highly doubts Scalise did not know the agenda of EURO when Scalise booked the speaking engagement at the conference.