Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) has begun calling Republicans seeking their support to become speaker, Punchbowl News reports. Scalise began with some hardline conservatives who opposed McCarthy, then has moved on to key Republican delegations including Texas and Florida. Steve Scalise described himself as 'David Duke without the baggage' to a Louisiana reporter, trying to explain how his politics compared to Duke's. It was interpreted as Scalise saying he supported the same policies as Duke, and had the same appeal to white resentment politics - without the history of Klan robes, cross-burnings and Nazi regalia. Stephanie Grace, the reporter, said: “He was explaining his politics and we were in this getting-to-know-each-other stage. He told me he was like David Duke without the baggage. I think he meant he supported the same policy ideas as David Duke, but he wasn’t David Duke, that he didn’t have the same feelings about certain people as David Duke did.” In 2014, when he won a race to replace Kevin McCarthy as Majority Whip (after McCarthy was elevated to replace Eric Cantor as Majority Leader), it came out that Scalise had given a 2002 speech to a David Duke-run racist group. At that time the "David Duke without the baggage" quote got a lot of wide circulation in the light of the speech to the white supremacist group.
good news is he may be willing to fund the "ukranian nazis"? bad news GEO group gets to bilk the taxpayer from increased "immigration funding"
I don't know much about him but when I mentioned he had been diagnosed (a couple of months ago) with Kahler's disease/multiple myeloma to an elderly relative in Louisiana she just said "good" so he must be a peach.
Steve Scalise, McCarthy's longtime No. 2, announces bid for House Speaker Scalise is the current House Majority Leader https://www.foxnews.com/politics/steve-scalise-to-announce-bid-for-house-speaker