Fact-checking claims about Scalise’s alleged ties to David Duke and white supremacist events

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) is being haunted by decades-old accusations of links with former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke as the No. 2 Republican in the lower chamber of Congress makes his case to lead the House as speaker.

Claims that went viral on social media and that were repeated by some members of Congress, including Rep. Nancy Mace (R-NC), claim Scalise spoke at a rally of white supremacists with Duke and even described himself as “David Duke without the baggage.” Scalise has battled the accusations for years, and it appears that several of the claims break down when put under the microscope.

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Many Democratic figures have taken the allegations against Scalise at face value and accused Republicans of accepting white supremacist views over their nomination of him. Members of the progressive “Squad” led the charge against Scalise.

“Republicans have chosen a candidate for speaker who has pushed white supremacist and antisemitic conspiracy theories, calling himself ‘David Duke without the baggage,'” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) said. “We must be focused on dismantling white supremacy and violence, not allowing them into our leadership.”

“Steve Scalise once called himself ‘David Duke without the baggage,'” Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “In 2002, he gave a speech to a white supremacist group founded by the former KKK grand wizard. This is who MAGA Republicans are nominating for Speaker.”

“Today, House Republicans nominated a Congressman with ties to the KKK and neo-Nazi groups to be their Speaker,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) wrote. “That’s all you need to know about the state of the Republican Party.”

However, an analysis by journalist D. Stephen Voss, who has covered Duke’s political career, pointed out some of the biggest flaws in the accusations against Scalise.

David Duke ‘without the baggage’

The origin of Scalise describing himself as “David Duke without the baggage,” according to Voss, came from a conversation the lawmaker had with fellow Louisiana State University alumni Stephanie Grace. Grace, who is a reporter, didn’t record or report the conversation at the time, and recalled years later, “going from memory,” that Scalise “told me he was like David Duke without the baggage.”

Duke tried to convince Republican voters he was a palatable candidate, regularly offering up mainstream positions and policy ideas while trying to move his racist beliefs into the background. The state representative never broke into the national scene, likely due to his views on race weighing him down with a broader electorate.

“David Duke was astonishingly good at parroting Reagan/Bush conservatives,” Voss wrote. “The one thing Duke’s critics could throw at him was the baggage, his awful past.”

Attending a white supremacist conference

Though Scalise issued an apology in 2014 over allegedly speaking at a rally of the Duke-founded white nationalist European-American Unity and Rights Organization, evidence suggests that the apology may have been made in error and that the Louisiana Republican likely never even attended the rally.

Scalise “spoke early in the day to a contingent of people, prior to the conference kicking off,” Kenny Knight, an associate of Duke and a key source for the original claim, said in 2014, according to Slate. “He was not there as a guest speaker at the conference.”

In other words, he spoke in a room where the conference was going to begin later in the day, but it wasn’t being used by the group at the time of Scalise’s address.

Knight said Scalise spoke to a group consisting overwhelmingly of local residents unaffiliated with the group, and that only a small contingent of members had joined the crowd to watch. There were no signs or banners in the room indicating that it was going to be the location for a conference of the controversial group.

“I think not,” Knight said when asked if there were signs or banners of the group hanging around. “I really truly believe if there were any signs or banners up, Mr. Scalise would [have asked], ‘What is that?’ And he probably would have left. Because I don’t recall having any banners or signs up at all.”

Knight’s account was corroborated by Barbara Noble, his then-girlfriend.

The only other source claiming that Scalise spoke at the EURO conference was an anonymous user of Stormfront, a white supremacist message board.

An ‘association’ with David Duke

Scalise was “friendly” with Knight, Duke’s campaign manager, who was from the same neighborhood as the future congressman. Duke told the Washington Post in 2014 about the relationship between the two men, and Duke wound up speaking at the event preceding the EURO conference as a result of their relationship.

“Scalise would communicate a lot with my campaign manager, Kenny Knight,” Duke said. “That is why he was invited and why he would come. Kenny knew Scalise, Scalise knew Kenny. They were friendly.”

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Duke didn’t speak about Scalise as though they were associates and told the outlet the two “never had a relationship.

“No lunches, no dinners with Scalise. I never supported him in any campaign,” Duke said. “I didn’t get the impression that he was one of us. I didn’t cultivate a relationship. Kenny was the one who did.”