Getty Congress Steve Scalise's office: Likely he spoke to white supremacist group 
 
 House Majority Whip Steve Scalise spoke to a white supremacist group in 2002, an explosive allegation that first surfaced Sunday on a Louisiana blog. 
 
 Scalise’s office acknowledged that he was making lots of speeches during that time period, as he built his political career, and it was “likely” he appeared before the group, an aide said. 
 
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 However, Scalise will not definitively confirm that he spoke to the organization, founded by David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan member, or that he knew what the group supported. 
 
 Louisiana Democrats mocked Scalise’s claim, calling it “ridiculous” as they sought additional information about the 2002 event. 
 
 However, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and other Bayou State Republicans backed Scalise - at least for now - and other House GOP leaders remained silent on the issue, providing Scalise with an opportunity to try to defuse the crisis, the most serious for him during his six months in leadership. 
 
 The 2002 speech by Scalise, now the third highest-ranking House Republican, was initially reported on CenLamar.com, the website of Lamar White Jr., a Louisiana progressive activist. 
 
 Scalise reportedly spoke at the National/International EURO Workshop on Civil Rights a dozen years ago while still serving in the state legislature, the website asserted. 
 
 The Southern Poverty Law Center says the European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO) was founded in 2000 by Duke, who ran unsuccessfully for federal office several times. SPLC says EURO “claims to fight for ‘White Civil Rights’ for ‘Europeans and Americans Wherever They May Live.’” 
 
 Scalise’s spokeswoman did not specifically confirm his appearance before the group, but she would not rule it out either. 
 
 Moira Smith, Scalise’s communications director, also said the Louisiana Republican had nothing to do with EURO or its “abhorrent” views. 
 
 “Throughout his career in public service, Mr. Scalise has spoken to hundreds of different groups with a broad range of viewpoints,” Smith said in a statement on Monday. “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. 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.” 
 
 A Scalise aide said the Louisiana Republican “doesn’t remember speaking to this group and we don’t have any record of his agenda from ’02.” The aide said Scalise had just one staffer when he was a state representative. 
 
 But the Scalise aide Monday said he spoke at that hotel “a lot” and frequently talked about a ballot initiative that would’ve impacted the slush fund being described. If he did speak to the group, the Scalise aide said, he “didn’t know they were a white supremacist group.” 
 
 Scalise was elected House majority whip in June after former Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was defeated in a GOP primary. 
 
 White’s website cited a description of Scalise’s appearance at the EURO event that was originally posted on Stormfront, which describes itself as “the voice of the new, embattled White minority.” 
 
 Scalise reportedly “discussed ways to oversee gross mismanagement of tax revenue or ‘slush funds’ that have little or no accountability,” White said, quoting Stormfront. 
 
 “Representative Scalise brought into sharp focus the dire circumstances pervasive in many important, under-funded needs of the community at the expense of graft within the Housing and Urban Development Fund, an apparent give-away to a selective group based on race,” White wrote, quoting the post on Stormfront. 
 
 A few years later, the same user who described Scalise’s speech said he should run for Congress if Duke did not, saying that Scalise offered “his support for issues that are of concern to us.” Scalise was elected to Congress in 2006. 
 
 Jindal, the son of Indian immigrants, said he backed Scalise in a statement released by his office. 
 
 “I know Congressman Scalise to be a good man who is fair-minded and kind-hearted. I’m confident he absolutely rejects racism in all its forms,” Jindal said. 
 
 But Louisiana Democrats said Scalise faces many questions about how he ended up at the EURO conference and why he didn’t know the group was affiliated with Duke, a well-known figure in Bayou State politics. 
 
 “It’s disturbing to learn that Congressman Scalise has admitted that he spoke to an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed a hate group and the Anti-Defamation League characterizes as anti-Semitic,” said Stephen Handwerk, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party. “It’s even more disturbing to hear that his allies are trying to sweep this incident under the rug by blaming Scalise’s staff and claiming the then-state representative didn’t know the group’s ideology. That’s ridiculous... If someone in Louisiana didn’t know about David Duke’s beliefs in 2002, they must have been hiding under a very large rock somewhere.” 
 
 Handwerk added: “Which leads to some uncomfortable questions. … Who exactly invited Scalise in the first place? Was it David Duke? Duke addressed the group via teleconference. Wasn’t Scalise present during Duke’s remarks? And what exactly did Scalise say that so impressed the attendees that they were raving about his appearance several years later? Has he accepted any subsequent invitations from the group? Has he accepted any campaign contributions from the organization’s members? Voters deserve answers to these questions.” 
 
 Republican control of Washington begins next week, and it’s getting off to a rough start, at least for House Republicans. 
 
 In addition to Scalise allegedly speaking to a white supremacist group, New York Rep. Michael Grimm pleaded guilty to felony tax evasion in federal court and is preparing to resign this week, according to GOP sources. 
 
 And Texas GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold is facing a civil suit filed by his former spokeswoman that alleges improper behavior in his congressional office. Farenthold has denied any wrongdoing. ||||| House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) spoke at a white supremacist group’s event in 2002 while he served as a state representative, an unwelcome bit of news for Republicans preparing for the new Congress. 
 
 Scalise acknowledged speaking to the group created by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, but said it was “insulting and ludicrous” to think he shared the group's views. 
 
 “I didn't know who all of these groups were and I detest any kind of hate group," he said in an interview with Nola.com on Monday. "For anyone to suggest that I was involved with a group like that is insulting and ludicrous,” he said. 
 
 The Louisiana political blog CenLamar initially published posts from Stormfront.com, a white supremacist message board, which mentioned Scalise speaking at an event for the European-American Unity and Rights Organization. 
 
 Scalise did not deny that he spoke to the group, but said he spoke to a number of groups about his opposition to governemnt spending when he served as a state representative. 
 
 “When people asked me to go speak, I went and spoke to any group that called,” he said. 
 
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 Scalise’s office in a statement said that Scalise didn’t know about the group’s white-supremacist leanings and that its message is a “stark contradiction to what Mr. Scalise believes and practices as a father, a husband, and a devoted Catholic.” 
 
 “Throughout his career in public service, Mr. Scalise has spoken to hundreds of different groups with a broad range of viewpoints,” Moira Bagley Smith, Scalise’s spokeswoman, said in the statement. 
 
 “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.” 
 
 News of Scalise's appearance before the group created a storm in Washington, and some conservatives lashed out at Scalise. 
 
 Influential conservative blogger Erick Erickson doesn’t buy Scalise’s excuse that he didn’t know about the group’s leanings. 
 
 “By 2002, everybody knew that Duke was still the man he claimed not to be. EVERYBODY,” Erickson said in a blog on his website RedState.com. “How the hell does somebody show up at a David Duke organized event in 2002 and claim ignorance?” 
 
 The Post reported that a number of local businesses put out statements disavowing the event to create distance between its message. 
 
 Duke’s group is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and regularly posted white supremacist and anti-Semitic content on its website, whitecivilrights.com. Posts on the white supremacist forum say that Duke spoke at the event through a teleconference. 
 
 Scalise moved up to GOP whip this past summer after the primary defeat of former Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) caused a shake-up within the caucus. 
 
 He defeated Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), who had been a deputy whip, in the race for the third-ranking House GOP leadership spot. Scalise had previously served as the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee. 
 
 This story was updated at 9:09 p.m. ||||| In 2002, a year after not long before Trent Lott was driven from office in December of 2002, for his statements about support Strom Thurmond, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), now the number three Republican in the House of Representatives, went to a David Duke organized event. 
 
 The gathering was in 2002, hosted by David Duke outfit called the European-American Unity and Rights Organization — Robert Costa (@costareports) December 29, 2014 
 
 How do you not know? How do you not investigate? 
 
 David Duke is the reasons 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. 
 
 I moved to Georgia to go to school and could only now consider moving back thanks to the hard work of Governor Bobby Jindal. 
 
 By 2002, 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? 
 
 Trent Lott was driven from the field in 2001 for something less than this. 
 
 And the very GOP establishment now lining up behind Steve Scalise threw Chris McDaniel under the bus for speaking to a Sons of the Confederate Veterans event.
– The third-ranking House Republican has admitted that he addressed a gathering of white supremacists in 2002—but House Majority Whip Steve Scalise says he didn't know the group's beliefs and it is "insulting and ludicrous" to suggest he shared them, the Hill reports. Scalise, who was a Louisiana state lawmaker at the time, tells the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he "spoke to any group that called" about his opposition to government spending. An aide says Scalise has spoken to "hundreds of different groups" and is in no way "affiliated with the abhorrent group in question." "I detest these kinds of views," Scalise says of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization founded by former KKK leader David Duke. "As a Catholic, I think some of the things they profess target people like me. A lot of their views run contradictory to the way I run my life." Louisiana politicians, including Gov. Bobby Jindal, have defended Scalise, saying they're confident he is not a racist, reports CNN. But Democrats—and some conservatives—say Scalise still has questions to answer, Politico reports. "If someone in Louisiana didn't know about David Duke's beliefs in 2002, they must have been hiding under a very large rock somewhere," says the executive director of the state Democratic Party.