Some Background on Steve Scalise, the Republican Congressman Who Was Shot This Morning

Kaitlin Menza
Updated
Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty

From Esquire

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, two security agents, and an aide were shot this morning in Alexandria, Virginia, during a morning practice for the annual Congressional baseball game. While the suspect is in custody, the story is still very much developing, with details trickling in from the scene about how this happened and who was involved. Here's some information about the man behind the headline.

Steve Scalise represents Louisiana's 1st congressional district.

Since 2008, Scalise has presided over this district, which includes the New Orleans suburbs down through the Mississippi delta. He is a career politician, first winning a spot in the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1995 while still in his twenties.

He is a hard-line conservative.

Scalise serves in the House Pro-Life Caucus, Second Amendment Task Force, and Tea Party Caucus. He co-sponsored legislation for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman, as well as the Birthright Citizenship Act, H.R. 140, which would end birthright citizenship. He strongly supports the repeal and replace of Obamacare.

He is a Trump supporter.

While Scalise offered a lukewarm endorsement of Trump in 2016, he has made up for it by voting completely in line with President Trump's policies so far. After Trump's every move, Scalise tends to release a statement supporting it, as he did days ago with the president's decision to remove the United States from the Paris accords. "While the previous administration expressed open hostility to American manufacturing, it's refreshing that President Trump is focused on putting America first by negotiating sound deals that protect and create American jobs-including the energy jobs that are so critical to our economy in Louisiana," he said.

He's admitted to giving a speech to white supremacists.

In 2002, Scalise spoke to the European Unity and Rights Organization, a group led by Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the KKK. "He told me he was like David Duke without the baggage," Stephanie Grace, a long-time political reporter, told The New York Times in 2014 of her first meeting with Scalise. "I think he meant he supported the same policy ideas as David Duke, but he wasn't David Duke, that he didn't have the same feelings about certain people as David Duke did." While Scalise admitted to the speech, he later claimed he didn't know their cause was white supremacy.

Just a few days ago, he worked to repeal Dodd-Frank.

The CHOICE Act passed the House last week, legislation that would gut most of the financial regulations passed during the financial crisis in 2008 and largely eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The extreme bill is not expected to pass the Senate in its current form.

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