As Republicans rallied around House Majority Whip Steve Scalise on Tuesday over his apparently unwitting attendance at a white nationalist event in 2002, a Louisiana political operative offered a different version of the story: that Scalise did not speak to the group but rather to a civic group that gathered at the same venue that day.
In a statement on Tuesday, Scalise acknowledged attending the white nationalists' gathering, calling it “a mistake I regret.” His office did not immediately respond to questions about the contradiction.
