I'm surprised this hasn't been discussed here ...
Rep. Andre Carson said he would not apolgize for recent remarks, in which he said the Tea Party would like nothing more than to see black people 'hanging on a tree.'
The nation's largest Tea Party organization is calling for a Democratic congressman to resign after he said Tea Party lawmakers would like nothing more than seeing black people "hanging on a tree."
Mark Meckler and Jenny Beth Martin of the Tea Party Patriots described Rep. Andre Carson's remarks as "disgusting" and "hateful" in a statement to the Daily News.
"Rep. Carson should immediately resign from Congress," it read.
The Indiana lawmaker and leading member of the Congressional Black Caucus made the shocking remarks at an Aug. 22 jobs event in Miami sponsored by the caucus.
"He is clearly not fit to serve," the statement added. "At a minimum, he should be removed from leadership in the Congressional Black Caucus, and censured by his colleagues. If they refuse to take these actions, they are sending a clear statement to the American public that it is acceptable for 'leaders' in Congress to wantonly accuse their fellow members and the American public of desiring murder."
The lawmaker's spokesman did not immediately return requests for comment
Carson told the Indianapolis Star that he won't apologize to the Tea Party.
"I stand on the truth of what I spoke," he said.
"I was very passionate in my language, and perhaps if I had to do it over, that analogy wouldn't have been used because I would have known it would have been a distraction."
In video that surfaced earlier this week, Carson is heard saying, "We have seen change in Congress. … The Tea Party is stopping that change."
"This is the beyond symbolic change," he continued. "This is the effort that we are seeing of Jim Crow. Some of these folks in Congress would love to see us as second class citizens. Some of them in Congress of this Tea Party movement would love to see you and me … hanging on a tree."
The caucus has recently come under fire for hurling insults at the Tea Party.
Black Caucus member and 11-term Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) came under the microscope earlier this month when she said the "Tea Party can go straight to hell" at a jobs forum in the Golden State.
"They are intentionally attempting to turn citizen against citizen in this country for their own personal and political benefit," said Martin and Meckler of the two lawmakers. "It is disgusting to witness."
