US Vice President Joe Biden has said that neither he nor President Barack Obama believe that the grass-roots conservative Tea Party movement is “racist” – although repeating unproven stories about “racist” incidents at Tea Party protests.
When asked by This Week anchor Jake Tapper, “Do you think elements of the Tea Party are racist?,” Biden first equivocated.
“Well, the truth is that at least elements that were involved in some of the Tea Party folks expressed racist views,” the Vice President said.
It was in his equivocation that Biden repeated an unproven story about Tea Party “racism.”
“There are individuals who are either members of or on the periphery of some of their things, their — their protests — that have expressed really unfortunate comments [....] they were all over the tv [....] the Black Congressman walking up the steps of the Capitol,” he said.
John Lewis (D-GA)
Biden was referring to Georgia Democrat John Lewis, who claimed that Tea Party protesters used racial epithets against him and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus at the height of tensions surrounding the vote on Obamacare.
However, video of Lewis walking though the Tea Party crowd clearly shows not a single member of the conservative movement used any racial epithet against him or other members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Conservative Internet mogul Andrew Breitbart has offered US $100,000 to the United Negro College Fund if this or other incidents of “Tea Party Racism” can be proven.
Biden then went on to say that neither he nor Obama believes the Tea Party movement is “racist.”
“I don’t believe, the president doesn’t believe that the Tea Party is — is a racist organization. I don’t believe that,” Biden said. “Very conservative. Very different views on government and a whole lot of things. But it is not a racist organization.”
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Biden and Obama simply don't want to incite a riot… they know the teabaggers are NOTHING BUT racist. 100% of the issue the far right has with Mr. Obama has to do with his skin color and absolutely nothing else. I live in the northeast and "President Nigger" is the common way he is addressed in "polite society". Every bar, every VFW, every gathering of any kind.. that's the crap you hear. If they watched the man for two minutes on C-SPAN and so forth they would know his thinking is very middle-of-the-road. All the hype about "socialism" and blah blah blah is simply a cover for these ignorant turds' covert racism.
YJames,
You are a wonderful representative of the misguided Obamabots.
James Hempsmokeweedington, you are nothing but a liberal pretending to be a fan of this site. You are lying. I've been involved with the Tea Party from the beginning, and speak to conservatives everywhere, and never have I heard what you say. You either are lying to discredit real conservatives, or you believe what you hear other liberals saying.
If you want to spread racism, do it at the Daily KOS or Huffington Post, or some other liberal site.
As a Tea Party supporter, my views have nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with excess spending and excess government intervention into our lives. Nothing more, nothing left. The president's race has nothing to do with it.
I think its interesting when you see signs at Tea Party rallies that refer to Obama as a “Reneger”. Any literate person knows that there is no such word but its pronunciation is clear as well as its intent. No one ever accused Tea Party members of being intellectually relevant but this less than clever and veiled attempt at levying cowardly racist name calling.
Though, anyone with a dictionary knows that it is a word. It's the noun form of renege, meaning to "go back on a promise, undertaking, or contract".
Attention: You can't force acceptance.
Too bad.
If the Tea Party has racists, then they should call it "diversity within the Party" just to show the hypocrisy of the idiots across the aisle. Tolerate intolerance! No conformity! Reject social justice!