Congressman Charles “Charlie” Rangel said that the Tea Party is “the same group we faced in the South with those white crackers and the dogs and the police.”
“They didn’t care about how they looked. It was just fierce indifference to human life that caused America to say enough is enough. ‘I don’t want to see it and I am not a part of it.’ What the hell! If you have to bomb little kids and send dogs out against human beings, give me a break.”
Rangel spoke to the Daily Beast as part of a wide-ranging interview.
The Tea Party started several years ago, being made up mostly of conservative Americans who didn’t agree with the current Republican party leadership and candidates. Its members advocate for conservative issues such as freedom to own guns and reducing government spending.
Rangel said that there are some good Republicans, naming Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, and Peter King, a Republican Congressman also from New York.
Rangel is a Democrat representing parts of Harlem and the Bronx.
