WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Monday waded into a controversy over revelations that the House’s No. 3 Republican spoke to a white supremacist group 12 years ago, saying who the GOP has in leadership “says a lot about who they are.”

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest repeatedly said Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise once described himself as “David Duke without the baggage.” A reporter for the New Orleans Advocate newspaper said Scalise made the remark to her as he was starting out in the Louisiana Legislature nearly 20 years ago. Scalise’s office did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

Earnest said it’s up to Republicans to decide whether he retains his position. “There is no arguing that who Republicans decide to elevate into a leadership position says a lot about what the conference’s priorities and values are,” Earnest said.

“We’ve also heard a lot from Republicans particularly over the last few years, including the chairman of the Republican Party, about how Republicans need to broaden their appeal to young people and to women, to gays and to minorities, that the success of their party will depend on their ability to broaden that outreach,” Earnest said. “So it ultimately will be up to individual Republicans in Congress to decide whether or not elevating Mr. Scalise into leadership will effectively reinforce that strategy.”

The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also issued statements Monday attacking Scalise as Democrats sought to fan the controversy a day before Republicans formally assumed control of Congress. “As the new Congress begins, nothing discredits Republican claims of outreach and bringing people together more than their decision to keep Steve Scalise at the top tier of the elected leadership of their caucus,” said DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The controversy was sparked last week when a liberal Louisiana blogger uncovered Scalise’s speech to a 2002 Louisiana convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, which called itself EURO. Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke founded the group, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a hate group.

Scalise moved quickly to distance himself from the group, saying he opposes its views. As a state legislator at the time, Scalise said, he didn’t have much staffing and didn’t always know details of the groups he was invited to address. He said the speech was a mistake he now regrets, and party leaders have backed him.

House Republicans, who met Monday night in the Capitol to discuss rules changes, said Scalise was not a topic of conversation or concern. GOP Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina said Scalise is widely liked and supported by his colleagues.

Louisiana’s Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, defended the congressman in response to the White House criticism.

“I don’t think it would be smart for the Republican conference to take advice from this White House,” Jindal said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Steve’s a good, decent man. I continue to support him. I know his heart. He’s not a racist.”

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Associated Press writers Charles Babington and Erica Werner in Washington and Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, La., contributed to this report.

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