Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA)
Speaker of the House John Boehner continues to stand behind Steve Scalise, his third in command, despite Scalise's 2002 speech to a white supremacist group—and that means Republicans need to continue to feel the pressure. Scalise will be
feeling the pressure in person on Tuesday:
Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, a national racial justice organization with more than 50,000 members, is planning a Tuesday protest outside a Scalise fundraiser on Capitol Hill. The group posted its plans on its Facebook page.
"Speaker Boehner and GOP donors have an important choice to make: they can disavow white supremacy, strip Steve Scalise of his leadership role and stand up to David Duke; or they can leave Scalise in power and confirm that Republicans are unwilling to confront racism in their own party," reads the group's post.
"Join us on Tuesday January 13th at 2:30pm at the Capital Hill Club in Washington DC, and demand accountability for his actions, and removal from his leadership role."
Right now, the statement that Boehner and other top Republicans are making by letting Scalise continue in GOP leadership is "we are comfortable with leaders who are comfortable with white supremacists." They are also comfortable with his
bogus excuses about how he didn't know that the David Duke-founded European-American Unity and Rights Organization was a white supremacist group, and with his record of
votes against Martin Luther King Day, hate crimes legislation, and other things that white supremacists also oppose.
The way Boehner and other top Republicans have protected Scalise is a statement of Republican priorities for you, right there.