Nancy Mace Won’t Back Scalise For Speaker Because He ‘Attended a White Supremacist Conference’

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said she is not voting for Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) to be the next speaker of the House because he previously compared himself to former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke and attended a gathering of White supremacists.

Scalise reportedly told a Louisiana political reporter he’s “like David Duke without the baggage.” The would-be speaker also attended a White supremacist Duke organized in 2002, which he has since described as a “mistake.”

On Wednesday, the House Republican conference nominated Scalise for the speakership over Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), but it is not clear if the Louisiana lawmaker will receive the majority of the full House that is necessary to earn the position.

Mace told CNN’s Jake Tapper on The Lead that she will vote for Jordan.

“If the vote for speaker were today, would you vote for Steve Scalise?” he asked.

“I would not,” she replied. “I plan on voting for Jim Jordan on the floor. I’ve been very vocal about this for the last couple of days. I personally cannot, in good conscience vote for someone who attended a White supremacist conference and compared himself to David Duke. I would be doing an enormous disservice to the voters that I represent in South Carolina if I were to do that.”

“This is a reference to, in 2002, Scalise spoke before an extremist group founded by David Duke called the European-American Unity and Rights Organization,” Tapper noted. “In 2015, when this was first reported, Scalise said it was a ‘group whose views I wholeheartedly condemn. It was a mistake I regret and I emphatically oppose divisive racial and religious views like these groups hold.’ Is this the main reason why other Republicans are concerned about Scalise? I can’t believe that Marjorie Taylor Greene would be upset about this.”

Mace replied that Greene cited concerns about the health of Scalise, who is currently battling cancer. Health issues aside, she also said Scalise has not been clear about how he would run the House.

The congresswoman did not seem particularly bothered by Scalise’s history in 2020 when she campaigned with him and boasted about his endorsement of her.

Watch above via CNN.