re: LSU Law Students attempt to Ban Steve Scalise as Graduation Speaker

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In other words, he said he spoke

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A longtime political adviser for Duke, Kenny Knight, provided several conflicting accounts of the conference and Scalise’s involvement.

Knight said he organized the event for Duke, who was living in Russia at the time and would have to speak to the conference remotely. Knight first told the Post that he booked the Best Western and invited Scalise to speak, noting that the two were neighbors.

Knight said Scalise would not have known the event was held by Duke, whose name is prominent, especially in Louisiana, and would have signaled red flags.

"I’ve known David for 40 years, so I did him a favor," Knight told the Post. "As part of that, I decided to ask Steve, our local representative, to come by and say a few words before the conference started. He agreed, believing it was going to be neighbors, friends, and family. He saw me not as David Duke’s guy, but as the president of our civic association."

Scalise spoke for 15 minutes early in the day but did not hear Duke speak, Knight said.

Knight later told Slate that Scalise didn’t speak to the conference at all, but instead addressed a gathering of the local Jefferson Heights Civic Association. Knight, who also insisted that EURO was not a white supremacist group, said he had access to the Best Western conference room all day and held the local meeting two and a half hours before the EURO event started. At least a quarter of the people in attendance during Scalise’s speech were also there for the main event, Knight said.

"I wanted to reach out to him and give him an audience so he could talk to people from his district about legislation he was proposing," Knight said. "I did that as a courtesy."

For his part, Duke said he doesn’t know if Scalise was there. As mentioned, he was in Russia at the time.

"I’ve got conflicting reports," Duke said. "One person said he was a no show, that he was scheduled to come. Another person said he did come. I just don’t know what the truth was. It seems that Mr. Scalise says that he may have (been there)."

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