text: Story highlights House Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders say they'll stand by Steve Scalise 
   
   Leaders were initially frustrated with Scalise's first response to the story 
   
   Scalise called GOP members of the House on Tuesday 
   
   House Republican leadership is standing by Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 3-ranking House Republican, in the wake of a firestorm of criticism surrounding his 2002 speech to a white supremacist group. 
   
   Scalise's position as House majority whip has been thrown into doubt by the revelation, and the congressman had been calling members to gauge the level of support he had from his party, according to a senior House Republican source. 
   
   But House Speaker John Boehner, in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, said Scalise has his "full confidence" as whip. 
   
   "More than a decade ago, Representative Scalise made an error in judgment, and he was right to acknowledge it was wrong and inappropriate. Like many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I know Steve to be a man of high integrity and good character. He has my full confidence as our Whip, and he will continue to do great and important work for all Americans," he said. 
   
   His message came shortly before a similar message of support from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. 
   
   The controversy surrounding Scalise's address to a group founded by former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke had become a major distraction for Boehner and his leadership team since the story drew national attention on Monday. 
   
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   The fallout: What you need to know 
   
   In a statement issued Tuesday, Scalise said he spoke to the group while he was barnstorming the district to build support for a piece of legislation — and that speaking to them was a "mistake I regret." 
   
   "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, and I emphatically oppose the divisive racial and religious views groups like these hold," he said in the statement. 
   
   "I am very disappointed that anyone would try to infer otherwise for political gain," he added, and decried the group's "hateful bigotry." 
   
   The statement did not address how much Scalise knew about the group at the time of the speech. 
   
   Duke himself has said he doesn't know Scalise. Duke's former campaign manager, who said he organized the event, also said the congressman likely wasn't aware of the controversial history of his group. 
   
   However, a Roll Call report from 1999 suggests Scalise knew Duke well, and was critical of his beliefs. At that time, both were considered potential contenders in a House special election, and Scalise panned him in comments to the paper. 
   
   "The novelty of David Duke has worn off," Scalise said. "The voters in this district are smart enough to realize that they need to get behind someone who not only believes in the issues they care about, but also can get elected. Duke has proven that he can't get elected, and that's the first and most important thing." 
   
   In a coordinated move Tuesday, Boehner and McCarthy issued statements supporting Scalise within minutes of Scalise's new statement. There was frustration, according to the aides, that Scalise's initial statement, in which he blamed sloppy staff work for his appearance before the group in 2002, made it appear he wasn't taking full responsibility for the incident and moving to get it passed him. 
   
   It is unclear at this point how much blowback Scalise will get from rank-and-file Republicans, and that might now be fully visible until lawmakers return to work next week after digesting the unfolding situation. While the only public expressions from Republicans to this point have been supportive, the aides predicted Scalise still needs to work hard in the days ahead to maintain the confidence of his colleagues. 
   
   Critics of Scalise have been bipartisan, but so have his defenders. He's received strong support from Louisiana politicians, with African-American Rep. Cedric Richmond — the state's only Democratic House member — defending him from charges of racism. 
   
   "I don't think Steve Scalise has a racist bone in his body," Richmond told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "Steve and I have worked on issues that benefit poor people, black people, white people, Jewish people. I know his character." 
   
   READ: Louisiana pols offer bipartisan backing for Steve Scalise 
   
   But national Democrats have pounced on the episode, and as Boehner remained silent on the issue for most of Tuesday, ramped pressure on House Republican leadership to weigh in 
   
   House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's spokesman, Drew Hammill, said the news of Scalise's speech is "deeply troubling" for a GOP leader, but also declared that "actions [of the House GOP caucus] speak louder than whatever" Scalise said during the forum. 
   
   "Just this year, House Republicans have refused to restore the Voting Rights Act or pass comprehensive immigration reform, and leading Republican members are now actively supporting in the federal courts efforts by another known extremist group, the American Center for Law and Justice, which is seeking to overturn the President's immigration executive actions," he said in a statement. 
   
   The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee issued a scathing statement charging Scalise "chose to cheerlead for a group of KKK members and neo-Nazis at a white supremacist rally" and slamming House leadership for their silence on the development. 
   
   "While David Duke defends Scalise, Speaker Boehner and Leader [Kevin] McCarthy are refusing to condemn Scalise's choice of allies," said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee National Press Secretary Josh Schwerin. 
   
   Schwerin said the incident made it "clear their leadership has a history of embracing anti-Semitic, racist hate groups." 
   
   According to an agenda for the event and notes attendees posted afterward, Scalise appeared at the National/International EURO Workshop on Civil Rights, a white nationalist organization founded by David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. 
   
   The appearance was first reported on Sunday on CenLamar.com, a Louisiana politics blog run by Lamar White Jr. 
   
   But Scalise vehemently disavowed the group's beliefs in his interview with the Times-Picayune, and said he "spoke to any group that called" — comparing it, as an example, to the League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan group known for helping to register new voters. 
   
   "When you look at the kind of things they stand for, I detest these kinds of views. As a Catholic, I think some of the things they profess target people like me. At lot of their views run contradictory to the way I run my life," Scalise added. 
   
   READ: The GOP's 2016 problem 
   
   Scalise also suggested the appearance was in part due to staffing issues. 
   
   "I had one person that was working for me. When someone called and asked me to speak, I would go. I was, in no way, affiliated with that group or the other groups I was talking to." 
   
   CNN has learned that the staffer at the time was Cameron Henry, who currently holds Scalise's former state House seat. Henry rushed CNN off the phone Monday night and declined to discuss the situation, but did not deny his work for the congressman. 
   
   Henry's brother, Charles Henry, is Scalise's current chief of staff. Neither responded to requests for comment on Tuesday. 
   
   The controversy comes just days before Republicans take full control of Congress with House Majority Whip Scalise poised to play a key role in shepherding through conservatives' legislative priorities. 
   
   But even conservatives have expressed frustration with Scalise, who they believe hasn't stood strong on their priorities — pointing most recently to his vote for the government funding measure that drew heavy opposition from conservatives because it didn't address President Obama's immigration executive action. 
   
   Some, however, expressed support for him Tuesday. Rob Maness, the former Louisiana Senate candidate backed by the Tea Party, has been named as a potential primary challenger to Scalise but backed him in a statement to CNN. 
   
   "As Congressman Scalise has already conceded - attending this event was a mistake. I think we are all currently taking him at his word that this was an isolated incident that happened some 12 years ago," Maness said. 
   
   He added that if that's true, "this is clearly an orchestrated attack designed to distract" from the real issues, including "fighting back against President Obama's executive amnesty, correcting a weak and feckless Foreign Policy and stopping the massive expansion of government growth and spending." 
   
   More broadly, however, the establishment silence has infuriated conservatives still smarting over their loss in the Mississippi Senate race, when their chosen candidate, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, was narrowly defeated by Sen. Thad Cochran after establishment Republicans lodged racially-charged attacks against him. 
   
   McDaniel came under heavy fire from establishment Republicans for being billed as a headliner for a rally alongside a white nationalist, though he never ultimately attended the rally. In an email to CNN, McDaniel said that "of course there is a double standard for the GOP establishment." 
   
   He noted that former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour "has a long history of despicable comments, some of them overtly racist," pointing to a Politico article outlining some of the more salacious. 
   
   "And yet, he receives a free pass from establishment politicians because of his perceived influence. All the while, others are forever tarnished for less serious deeds," McDaniel said. 
   
   He added: "The establishment wings of both parties are more hypocritical than fair, seeking to crush anyone -- friend and foe alike -- who would threaten their hold on power." 
   
   Politicians in Scalise's home state of Louisiana rallied to his defense on Monday, however, saying they don't believe he agrees with the white supremacist group's ideology. 
   
   "I know Congressman Scalise to be a good man who is fair-minded and kindhearted. I'm confident he absolutely rejects racism in all its forms," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said in a statement. 
   
   But Scalise's alleged appearance at the event drew a harsh rebuke from Erick Erickson, the conservative RedState.com blogger and former Louisiana resident who asked of the congressman: "How do you not know? How do you not investigate?" 
   
   "How the hell does somebody show up at a David Duke organized event in 2002 and claim ignorance?" Erickson wrote in a post Monday. 
   
   He said Trent Lott -- the former Senate majority leader who was driven from his post after praising Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential campaign -- lost his gig "for something less than this" in 2001. 
   
   And he pointed to Republicans who hit Mississippi Senate candidate Chris McDaniel in 2014 for attending events hosted by the Sons of Confederate Veterans and for making plans to attend a rally where he was billed along with a white nationalist. ||||| 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. ||||| 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. 
   
   Story Continued Below 
   
   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.
target: – 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.