Ex-KKK leader David Duke: Lay off Steve Scalise or I'll start naming other pols I met with

Former Ku Klux Klan leader, Louisiana state legislator and notorious white supremacist David Duke says he has lots of friends who are politicians and has offered to name names.

In an interview with Fusion.net explaining his connection to current House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Duke said that he is exceptionally well-connected within the U.S. political class and that charges of racism against him are a product of the media's "zionist" and "tribalist" mentality.

Incoming Majority Whip Scalise has come under fire over a speaking engagement with Duke's pro-white EURO (European-American Unity and Rights Organization) foundation in 2002.

According to Duke, the rush to repudiate Scalise and his possible white-nationalist sympathies is "all bullshit."

"I’ve grown up" since his days as a Grand Wizard of the Klan, Duke told Fusion's Brett Logiurato via phone. "And I know who the real racists are."

According to Duke's website, "the Zio media lies about [Duke] constantly" because "he is the only major American political figure who dares to stand up the real ultra-racists who control America and Israel, the Jewish supremacists."

Fusion pointed to an SPLC report on EURO that calls the organization a "paper tiger," i.e., a shell group that mainly exists as a means for Duke to book speaking engagements and disseminate his writings on the "Zionist Globalism" plot to take over the world and dominate the global economy.

Duke said that he is shocked at the "insane" amount of attention he and Scalise are getting.

“Why is Scalise being singled out? I don’t know,” he said. “He was just going [to the EURO conference], obviously, to tell voters about some of his initiatives on some tax matters. That’s what it’s all about. And I think it’s insane, this whole process.”

He issued a warning to Democrats and Republicans who might try to ruin his friend's career.

"If Scalise is going to be crucified -- if Republicans want to throw Steve Scalise to the woods, then a lot of them better be looking over their shoulders," Duke warned, intimating that he would reveal his ties to any politicians who attack Scalise.

Scalise, for his part, has attempted to distance himself from Duke and has called EURO an "abhorrent organization." He said that he was unfamiliar with EURO and its white nationalist agenda prior to the appearance on its behalf.