Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson is standing by his assertion that the Tea Party is no more popular than the KKK in a fund-raising email he sent out this week, despite a firestorm of conservative criticism over his initial comments.
On his website and in the
fund-raising email, Grayson prominently displayed an image of a burning cross with two Ku Klux Klan members nearby with the words, “Now you know what the ‘T’ stands for.”
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Grayson first aligned the two groups last week when he was interviewed by Al Sharpton on "Politics Nation," saying, “I think that ordinary Americans are with the president, they are appalled by the Tea Party’s tactics. … At this point the Tea Party is no more popular than the Klan.”
Grayson reprinted the transcript from that interview on his website.
“As a black Tea Party activist, I could say that there's nothing more offensive than equating the Tea Party with the Ku Klux Klan,” Jennifer Burke, of TheTeaParty.net
told Yahoo News. “The hate speech uttered by sitting congressman Alan Grayson is deplorable, even by the low levels reached in recent years when Democrats routinely call us racists and suicide bombers.”
Grayson defended his actions and, in a
response to Roll Call, pointed to tactics used by the Tea Party in which they have used equally disturbing language.
“Tea Party members have circulated countless altered pictures depicting President Obama and the First Lady as monkeys. Tea Party members also called my fellow Member of Congress, civil rights hero John Lewis, a ‘n—,’ and Rep. Barney Frank a ‘f—,’” Grayson said in the statement. “One could go on and on, because there is overwhelming evidence that the Tea Party is the home of bigotry and discrimination in America today, just as the KKK was for an earlier generation. If the shoe fits, wear it.”
Roll Call said Republicans have asked Democrats to “condemn” Grayson’s actions.
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