Tuesday on CNN, while the political panel was discussing the controversy over recently elected House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) speaking at a gathering of white supremacists over a decade ago, CNN’s political analyst and Daily Beast editor in chief John Avlon wondered if House Majority Whip Steve Scalise “knowingly” courted racist votes.
“The question is not whether Steve Scalise is racist,” Avlon said. “The question is whether Steve Scalise knowingly courted racist votes. And to say you don’t know who David Duke is when you’re a Republican in Louisiana in 2002, after a decade before David Duke won the Republican nomination, and even in 1999, Scalise was quoted by Roll Call as saying while David Duke was unelectable, that they shared some consecutive values. Once you make a commitment to the group, you’re not talking about your policies, you’re pandering to a racist element in the state. That’s heavy, heavy baggage for a party that knows it needs to reach out to minority voters.”
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