Krauthammer: Obama’s Rev. Wright Far Worse than Scalise Speaking at David Duke Event

KRAUTHAMMER: “It's the worst timing, and I think if Scalise had wanted to make it easy for the party, he would have just stepped down on his own from leadership. Nobody is demanding that he leave the Congress or that his career is over. And I would see it – it probably would be seen as a temporary step, it wouldn’t be a life sentence. I think he would be eligible to return to leadership [indecipherable] but as a kind of a gesture. But he didn't and the House speaker is now behind him and he's stuck with him. Look, this happened 12 years ago. It is possible, but implausible that he really didn't know who these guys were. After all, the name of the organization is the Euro American Unity and Rights Organization. Pretty clear.”

HENRY: “Charles, before I covered the Senate – before I covered the White House, I covered the Senate for a long time. And someone who was known as the conscience of the Senate was Democratic Senator Robert Byrd. I interviewed him many times; very amiable fellow but had been a grand wizard in the Ku Klux Klan, a long time ago, long before he was in the Senate. Not just Democrats but Republicans said, you know, they have largely moved on. What say you about that?”

KRAUTHAMMER: “And the reason is that in the time in between, Byrd has acted decently, he reached out, he obviously had changed his views. I think the key question here is not just that this happened 12 years ago, but as far as I can tell, there is not a shred of evidence that there is anything in the intervening 12 years which would indicate any evidence of racism, hostility or ill will or anything of this nature, which means it would be a single event 12 years ago. Given the absence of anything of that sort in the 12 years, I think it's a pretty drastic thing to demand that he step down. I think that Steve is right that there is a terrible double standard. Barack Obama didn't wander into Jeremiah Wright's Church one time 12 years ago. He sat in it for 22 years as the man who is a racist raved against America and talked about 9/11 being chickens coming home to roost.”

HENRY: “So if there is guilt by association, it’s going to be difficulties for both parties?”

KRAUTHAMMER: “There should be, and I don’t think these are even comparable. I do think as a political issue, Scalise might have just stepped aside. But given that he hasn't, the Republicans are stuck with this, which is unfortunate, they're going to get hit over this a few times, but I can't see how they change their minds now.”