 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. 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. He noted that former Mississippi Gov. 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. 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. 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. ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 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. I was, in no way, affiliated with that group or the other groups I was talking to." 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. 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. Like many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I know Steve to be a man of high integrity and good character. I'm confident he absolutely rejects racism in all its forms," Louisiana Gov. “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. However, a Roll Call report from 1999 suggests Scalise knew Duke well, and was critical of his beliefs. Posts on the white supremacist forum say that Duke spoke at the event through a teleconference.
– 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.