Written by Dean Obeidallah (Before Scalise bowed out… this is a moving target, no one seems to want  it–OEN)

Let’s be clear: The race between GOP Reps. Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise to be the next Speaker of the House pits an election denying, serial lying, Trump firster against an election denying, serial lying, Trump firster. (By “Trump firster,” I mean people who put their loyalty to Trump above allegiance to the US Constitution.)

On Wednesday, Scalise won the internal GOP House caucus vote over Jordan by the small margin of 113 to 99 votes, yet as of now Scalise appears to be short of the 217 total votes he needs to capture the Speakership.

Up until now, I—and others—have covered extensively why Jordan should not be Speaker but instead should rightfully be a co-defendant in Donald Trump’s Jan 6 criminal case. Even Liz Cheney—who served as vice chair of the House Jan 6 committee—declared last week that Jordan “knew more about what Donald Trump had planned for Jan. 6 than any other member of the House of Representatives” and “was part of the conspiracy in which Donald Trump was engaged as he attempted to overturn the election.”

Given how dangerous Jordan is to our democracy, Scalise has escaped the scrutiny he deserves. It’s time to end that omission. In sum, Scalise is just as dangerous to our democratic Republic as would a Jordan Speakership. While it’s true Jordan was far more involved in plotting Trump’s attempted coup, Scalise has been actively covering up for Trump’s coup and crimes ever since Jan 6.

Let’s start with a little personal history about Scalise that has received some coverage.  Prior to being elected to Congress in 2008 from Louisiana, Scalise was a computer scientist and a state representative. Early in his political career, Scalise spoke with Stephanie Grace, a Louisiana political reporter and columnist, who shared what Scalise said at their first meeting. Grace noted, “He was explaining his politics and we were in this getting-to-know-each-other stage.” During those discussions, Grace added, “He told me he was like David Duke without the baggage.”  She continued, “I think he meant he supported the same policy ideas as David Duke, but he wasn’t David Duke.”

This was not a gotcha moment by a reporter. Rather, Scalise was telling this well-known Louisiana reporter where he stood politically–and that is with the views of David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the KKK. Scalise could’ve picked anyone from Louisiana politics to compare himself to from Huey Long to Edwin Edwards, but he chose Duke who had in the past spewed anti-Semitic and white supremacist hate.

In 2002, Scalise did more than compare himself to Duke, he spoke while a Louisiana State representative at a white supremacist convention organized by a group Duke created called the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, or EURO. As the Southern Poverty Law Center notes about EURO, it was started in 2000 by David Duke “to help protect the rights and heritage of European Americans.” In other words, to defend white supremacy.

Once the story came out in 2014 about Scalise speaking at the meeting, he apologized for attending, claiming he had no idea it was a white supremacist gathering. So we are to believe that “David Duke without the baggage” as a state representative just stumbled into a white supremacist event organized by Duke’s organization?!  As the NY Times reported at the time, “In a phone interview…David Duke recalled Scalise as a “nice guy” and said he was invited to the conference by two of Duke’s longtime associates.”

Over the years since, Scalise rose through the ranks of the House GOP. By 2017, he was in the House GOP leadership when he was shot and almost killed by a left leaning gunman who sought to kill Republican officeholders. It was during his recovery that he became very close to Donald Trump, who visited him in the hospital. And the feeling was mutual, with Trump praising Scalise at a 2019 event in New Orleans, calling him “my Steve” and “the legend from Louisiana, a man who’s got a lot of courage.”

Scalise soon became no different than Jim Jordan in defending Trump against every and any wrongdoing. In 2019, as we saw evidence that Putin tried to interfere in the 2016 election to help Trump win, Scalise defended Trump by  claiming, “The only collusion that happened where Russia tried to interfere in our election was when Barack Obama was president.” Scalise blaming the Black President for “collusion” makes all the sense in the world when you are “David Duke without the baggage.”

After the 2020 election Scalise—like Jordan—appeared in the media amplifying Trump’s election lies. For example, in December 2020—after Trump had lost all his court cases challenging the election including in the US Supreme Court—there was Scalise on Fox News refusing to recognize that Biden had won the election. Instead, he trafficked in election disinformation and would only commit to saying, “there will be a President sworn in on January 20.”

Being the election denier he is, after Trump’s Jan 6 terrorist attack, Scalise was one of the Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election. Bluntly, Scalise was helping Trump attempt to remain in power despite losing.

From there, Scalise has repeatedly defended Trump from any wrongdoing in his attempted coup and for inciting the MAGA crowd on Jan 6. For example, Scalise said Trump could not be seen as inciting the MAGA attack because he said the word “peaceful” in his speech. (In reality, Trump also said the word “fight” or “fighting” nearly 20 times in that speech and directed his supporters to march to the Capitol to “Stop the Steal.”)

The Louisiana Republican was also one of the House GOP leaders who held a press conference on the first day of the House Jan 6 hearings (July 2021) in an effort to confuse the public about what really happened. During that event, Scalise lied to the public by stating, “there were questions about why Speaker Pelosi didn’t make sure that Capitol Police had all the tools they needed to be prepared for that day.” As Scalise knows and fact checkers have repeatedly noted, “The Speaker of the House is not in charge of Capitol security. That’s the responsibility of the Capitol Police Board, which oversees the US Capitol Police and approves requests for National Guard assistance.”

And at a news conference with Scalise to discuss the Capitol attack, Republican Indiana congressman Jim Banks said: “Was Speaker Pelosi involved in the decision to delay national guard assistance following January 6? Those are serious and real questions that this committee refuses to even ask.”

In response, Scalise thanked Banks for those remarks and added: “Banks just raised some very serious questions that should be answered by the January 6 commission, but they’re not. And they’re not for a very specific reason. And that’s because Nancy Pelosi doesn’t want those questions to be answered.”

It wasn’t long until Scalise was uncovered for the liar he is. During the Jan 6 hearings, the committee played footage of Speaker Pelosi–along with Sen. Chuck Schumer and other congressional leaders–in a secure area during the Jan 6 MAGA attack on the phone demanding the National Guard be deployed to quell the attack. Who was in the video standing next to them and listening to the call on speaker phone? Steve Scalise. In response, MSNBC’s Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough fiercely denounced Scalise for “lying through [his] teeth.”

Then there’s Scalise’s non-stop defense of Trump’s crimes. After Trump was charged with 31 counts of Espionage earlier this year for his mishandling and sharing of classified information, Scalise stated, “This sham indictment is the continuation of the endless political persecution of Donald Trump.”  Scalise even attacked the DOJ for their handling of the case.

And in August after Trump was charged with four felonies in connection with his attempted coup, Scalise stated, “Biden’s DOJ is cutting sweetheart deals for Hunter to cover for the Biden Family’s influence peddling schemes while at the same time trying to persecute his leading political opponent. It’s an outrageous abuse of power.”

This is Steve Scalise. He is not just “David Duke without the baggage” as he called himself. Scalise is an election denying, serial lying, Trump firster who is a threat to our democratic Republic. In other words, he’s a MAGA Republican.