House Republican leaders are backing Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) after reports emerged that he spoke 12 years ago before a white supremacist group, a decision that Scalise says he regrets.

Party leaders appear to hope that the unwanted attention on their No. 3 leader will fade over the holidays as Congress gets set to convene next week. So far, Democrats have criticized Scalise but haven’t called for him to resign, according to the Associated Press.

In 2002, Scalise said he spoke to a variety of groups about a tax issue he was focused on, and one of them was a Louisiana convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO), which has been described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. EURO was founded by David Duke, the infamous former leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Scalise claimed that at the time he was a state legislator who didn’t have much in the way of staffing and often addressed groups that he didn’t know much about, saying that he denounces “any kind of hate group,” according to the report.

He said in a statement that he “wholeheartedly” condemns the viewpoints of EURO and called it a mistake he regrets. “I emphatically oppose the divisive racial and religious views group like these holds,” he added.

Republican leaders were quick to back Scalise, with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) calling it an error in judgment, praising Scalise for acknowledging the inappropriate act. He also stated that Scalise has “my full confidence as our whip.”

The House Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), also defended Scalise, noting that he condemned the organization and that he knew him as a friend and knew he didn’t hold those view.

He was also defended by black Louisiana Democrat Rep. Cedric Richmond, who told a local newspaper recently that he didn’t think Scalise “has a racist bone in his body,” and that he had worked closely with him for a long time and knew his family, and wouldn’t use the opportunity to turn him into a “scapegoat.”

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican, also spoke in defense of Scalise.