Ron Paul Knocks Tea Party Movement: Won't Help GOP (VIDEO)

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), a darling of the tea party movement, cautioned that its activists may not be helping the Republican Party.

"They get frustrated, they act out and sometimes they act too angrily and sometimes it doesn't come off well," Paul told MCNBC's Rachel Maddow on Wednesday. "They might not necessarily build the party."

Paul's comments came after a photo began circulating on the Internet that showed a tea party member in Texas with a sign carrying racial epithet.

"I think they're unhappy," Paul said on the program, but warned that the tea party movement was made up of both Republicans and Democrats disenchanted with "the establishment party."

Tea party activists have been flexing their political muscle in races across the country, including in Florida where the state's GOP chairman, Jim Greer, was recently forced to resign after endorsing Gov. Charlie Crist for Senate. Tea party members favor Crist's opponent, former State House Speaker Marco Rubio, whose views they see as a more closely aligned with their conservative values.

Paul told Maddow: "I don't think you can talk about the tea party as a party. It's made up of a lot of different people. And I don't even see them as being Republicans."

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Comments

[Todays Illusion]

10:30 PM on 02/04/2010

I want the tea party nut cases to stop this recent claim that their groups includes Democrats.
What a crock!
How lame.
What a lie
People who don't really know what they believe, ok I would buy that, but not this claim of actual living breathing Democrats.

[o4tuna]

10:24 AM on 01/09/2010

The tbagger movement is nothing but a pyramid scheme. It is about someone being a leader who can work up a crowd and deliver votes. And because this person can deliver votes, they can have some power to get what they want. And that is what is going on in the GOP right now. It isn't what the party is going to stand for, it is who is going to hold the power over it.

[Rocket80]

09:52 PM on 01/08/2010

Uh, this was NOT a knock. They are the future of an independent antigovernment third party, if anything. No way in hell they are going to help republicans, who are the exact same on foreign policy and economic policy as the dems = MORE government. tea partiers are equal opportunity establishment haters.

Again, it wasn't a knock.

[johnmorgan]

03:12 PM on 01/09/2010

How can they be the future of an independent party if it's actually an astroturf organization, created by corporations? And if it has no useful, logical position on anything?

[Todays Illusion]

10:35 PM on 02/04/2010

Republicans are not going to allow these easily mislead, angry ones out of their party, they need the votes. The big money has been involved and controlling them from their start. The Republicans just have to work up the required package of lies and they will all line back up and vote (R) as told.

[JustFrogs]

04:09 PM on 01/08/2010

I expect reports within the next few weeks of death threats against Paul by tbaggers.

[aznurse]

04:06 PM on 01/08/2010

try saying you're not that interested in moving you $$. and why. I said that HP is getting a bit too right leaning for me and will hold off with the move. It can't get posted. I even just said "nope" and it won't go through.
This isnt fully moderated.
ps don't try to say anyting bad about Jewelyahnnni

[MetalCanuck]

02:25 PM on 01/08/2010

Well gotta go, its been fun chatting. Remember, ending the Left/right nonsense and working together with honest people from BOTH sides is essential to ending corruption. Without this we will lose and become slaves to this Oligarchy running the leadership in all of our governments it seems.

I am off to the gym..later.

[MetalCanuck]

02:19 PM on 01/08/2010

Later Huff posters, think about it..ending the Left/Right argument is the most important thing right now. Hold your nose..I am too. We will NEVER agree on everything, the founding fathers knew this that's why they had SOVEREIGN states but that was ruined. We need to get back to the original constitution minus sl a ver y and the F E D and we will be fine.

[JPFranklin]

02:32 PM on 01/08/2010

Remember, we tried to have a weaker Federal Gov. It was called the Articles of Confederation, it didn't work so we scrapped it for the current Constitution. Confederacies don't work, we've proven twice in our country's history.

[TanzaniaTeacher]

02:34 PM on 01/08/2010

Minus slavery and most of the ammendments, including the one that gave me the right to vote.

[october2009]

02:02 PM on 01/08/2010

I too was a registered Democrat until I realized that both parties are the same... (Voted for Clinton and Gore in 2000)

I now have a pro-peace, pro-personal freedom, pro-sound money, and pro limited constitutional government philosophy that doesn't fall in line with both major parties...

I couldn't care less about the parties... I too only care about the philosophy and thankfully one man in government (Dr. Paul) represents that philosophy perfectly well.

The Left vs. Right WWE wrestling match is over. It's done.

[MetalCanuck]

02:13 PM on 01/08/2010

All it is,

WWE, and that's a fact. The media pushes this to distract and people who post here do it too..on both sides.

[Quinny]

01:52 PM on 01/09/2010

Nicely said. It has to be about the PERSON, NOT the party.....

[MetalCanuck]

12:53 PM on 01/08/2010

Many of you still haven't learned that the establishment Dems are just the same as the repubs???!!

Hasn't this past election taught any of you anything? People have to stop buying in to the party line, Ron Paul (if you are lucky enough that he runs again) should be the person you vote for. He WILL NOT get rid of the programs but actually pay for them by finally ending all the wars...I mean all of them too. Bankers will also go to prison and the FED will come to an end through the end of legal tender laws. Legal tender laws forces you to use the Fed's private currency that they control the value of and put you under obligation to pay back.

If you people do not wake up in 2010/12 then you deserve what you get, leave the left/right nonsense behind, wake up because you can't always get what you want. You will NEVER agree with anyone completely..so stop looking. Focus on who is honest and has good intentions. I know some of you will say what about Dennis Kucinich, but he does not have the same kind of support that Ron has and Dennis supports Ron.

We need you guys to get this ship called America back on track, the money we will save by finally removing the corruption from power will be enough to give anyone medical care..help the REAL tea PARTY not baggers or GOP in disguise.

[JPFranklin]

12:56 PM on 01/08/2010

Ron Paul was on The Colbert Report a couple years ago and said he would get rid of the Dept. of Education. That's reason enough for me to not vote for him. He seems to believe only people who can afford to educate their children should have the ability to do so, and that's bad for the future of our country.

[indepedantmav]

12:58 PM on 01/08/2010

Tell me. What has the Dept of Education done for you? Havent you noticed the students lagging behind the rest of the world for the last 20 years?

[MetalCanuck]

01:02 PM on 01/08/2010

WHat has the DOE done for you lately? NOTHING!

Let your state handle education, you would have control that way..the Fed's brought no child left behind and that was such a success right?

[indepedantmav]

12:57 PM on 01/08/2010

FANNED!!

[MetalCanuck]

01:03 PM on 01/08/2010

Thanks:)

We really need to put these fakes out of power, even Hamilton supported Jefferson (his sworn enemy) because he knew he was honest..well Ron is the present day Jefferson. He won't hurt you, just help.

[illinoisan]

12:48 PM on 01/08/2010

Ron Paul provided a great lesson in politics for my young daughter. Our town was practically covered over in Ron Paul campaign signs making my kid think he was a serious contender. When he eked out a miserable 3% of the vote in our district, it let my kid know all about the nature of vocal minorities.

[JJinWI]

01:08 PM on 01/08/2010

Fanned.

[MetalCanuck]

01:57 PM on 01/08/2010

Umm, he got a lot more than that, if you paid attention you would have known much of the votes for him where thrown out.

[JohnFromCensornati]

12:35 PM on 01/08/2010

wRong Paul (R-TX) *is* a Republican. You can tell by the (R).

[MetalCanuck]

01:57 PM on 01/08/2010

Yes keep the left/right idiocy alive..its worked so well so far.

[JohnFromCensornati]

02:13 PM on 01/08/2010

LOL. wRong Paul (R-TX) is not about left/right idi0cy. He's all about RIGHT-only idi0cy.

[zest]

12:14 PM on 01/08/2010

He's a rich republican, a group from which I take no advice.

[october2009]

12:15 PM on 01/08/2010

What about the Rich Democrats? Do you listen to them?

[MetalCanuck]

12:43 PM on 01/08/2010

LOL give me a break, the Dems are richer. THey are BOTH CORRUPT! Wake up people.

[JohnFromCensornati]

12:46 PM on 01/08/2010

Yes. Both wRong Paul (R-TX) and Rand (R-KY) are corrupt. We finally agree on something!

[rascalcat]

12:01 PM on 01/08/2010

While I respect how candid Mr. Paul is, I don't think Libertarian principles would work.

It is a lack of regulation that got us into this mess.

[october2009]

12:10 PM on 01/08/2010

It's those same Libertarian principles that created this country.

It was the "leave us alone", "I don't want to give my money to the British government", "I can take care of myself" libertarian principles that permeated through the colonists and therefore formed this wonderful country we're living in.

[BuckJ]

12:17 PM on 01/08/2010

It was the representation problem. Taxes, in and of themselves, were not objectionable to the founders.

"Private property ... is a Creature of Society, and is subject to the Calls of that Society, whenever its Necessities shall require it, even to its last Farthing, its contributors therefore to the public Exigencies are not to be considered a Benefit on the Public, entitling the Contributors to the Distinctions of Honor and Power, but as the Return of an Obligation previously received, or as payment for a just Debt."

Benjamin Franklin

[TanzaniaTeacher]

12:20 PM on 01/08/2010

Actually, the original Boston tea party was about the British East India Company's monopoly on trade and industry in the New World. It was NOT about paying taxes to the British government.

It was certainly not "I can take care of myself", or else the states never would have alligned themselves with a central government.

[AndyWright68]

12:24 PM on 01/08/2010

Lack of regulation? Where?

Libertarian principals is the the only way out of this mess. Sound money, limited government, free markets, individual liberty and responsibility, and a foreign policy of noninterventionism. How in the world can anyone object to these principals? Unless you are a bleeding heart liberal, socialist who believes you can steal other peoples money through taxes and give it to those who did not earn it to make yourself feel like you are helping people.

[october2009]

12:36 PM on 01/08/2010

Amen!

Writing a check to the IRS isn't called charity in my book!

[JPFranklin]

12:37 PM on 01/08/2010

The Glass-Steagal Act was repealed, that is what allowed banks to make these bad mortgage deals. The invisible hand of the market doesn't do anything but fist the average person. As for "stealing money through taxes" the wealthy in this country make their money on the backs of hard-working average people, you don't think that the average person deserves any kind of help from the aristocracy? Why don't we just bring back slavery while we're at it... That was really efficient and made lots of money for the rich.

[GranE]

12:00 PM on 01/08/2010

Totally disagree with Ron Paul. Democrats are not teabaggers, or simply put, teabaggers are not Democrats. Being from a red state he should know this. Look at the rallies and tell me what Democrat would be a racist? The signs at rallies reveal the many reasons individuals are unhappy. First, they were told they'd all reap the benefits of a Republican administration, but find they are broke. "Come join American's for Prosperity", we'll do away with taxes and all be rich. They are mad at being suckered into an ideology that failed and was soundly defeated, so they blame Obama not themselves, nor their rich leaders.

Yet, they follow a former congressman from Tx. who fed at the public trough for 31 years and took his pension and insurance benefits in retirement, then became a lobbyist. Everything they say they hate. Their signs portray that they love them some Hitler, guns, and Medicare, and nothing about education since the red states are on the bottom of that ladder. Ron Paul is out of touch if he is not seeing what we are seeing from teabaggers. Read their signs Mr. Paul, especially the ones with misspelled words.

[monkeysuit]

11:55 AM on 01/08/2010

He makes too much sense to be one of our politicians, doesn't he?





Monkeysuit
http://randompoliticalthoughtsandnews.blogspot.com/

[AndyWright68]

12:27 PM on 01/08/2010

We need 434 just like him!

[JPFranklin]

12:29 PM on 01/08/2010

He is a politician

[JaCqieBHO]

01:41 PM on 01/08/2010

They don't think soo...congress is a ruff town..RP supporters can dream all they want...None of his ideas will pass congress...his ideas are so vicious he sounds like he want to destroy America..i will Vote NO for RP....thank you very much