Sole GOP Jew in Congress Sees No Harm From David Duke Flap
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
The sole Jewish Republican in the incoming Congress said revelations of a speech by the party’s House whip to a white supremacist group would not harm the party with Jews.
“This doesn’t undercut Republican progress towards reaching minorities and the Jewish community,” Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) said in a statement to The Hill, a daily covering Congress.
Revelations that Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the majority whip in the incoming U.S. House of Representatives, spoke in 2002 to a group with ties to white Supremacist David Duke, are clouding what should be a triumph for the GOP, which gained seats in the House and seized from Democrats the Senate majority in November elections.
The GOP leadership has stood behind Scalise, who says he regrets the talk, made when he was a state legislator, and was unaware of the group’s affiliations at the time.
A priority for the Republicans heading into the 2016 elections is gaining support among minorities.
In a statement, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the House minority leader, cited a finding by the Anti-Defamation League that the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, the group Scalise had addressed, was anti-Semitic.
“Whip Scalise’s involvement with a group classified by the Anti-Defamation League as anti-Semitic and the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group is deeply troubling for a top Republican leader in the House,” she said.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
