Americans For Tax Reform Tax Policy Director Ryan Ellis said on Wednesday night that he’s starting to think tea party activists are “freaking retarded.”
@freddoso I’ve gotta tell you, man, I’m starting to think these tea party activists are freaking retarded
— Ryan Ellis (@RyanLEllis) October 24, 2013
The tweet provoked ire from conservatives. Drew Ryun, the political director for the conservative Madison Project PAC issued a statement slamming Ellis.
“This offensive remark is exactly what’s wrong with the K Street Republicans in Washington, DC. Instead of fighting for hard-working families that struggle every day to make ends meet, they choose to attack them,” Ryun said in a statement released Thursday. “We work closely with the Tea Party movement and these people are salt of the earth Americans that take the future of our nation seriously. They are hurting from the costs of Obamacare and feel completely disenfranchised by the Washington elite. The last thing they deserve is to be disrespected by Grover Norquist and his so called ‘conservative’ operation. At the very least, the Tea Party deserves an apology from ATR.”
Redstate.com editor Erick Erickson also highlighted the tweet on his blog on Thursday.
“I’m pretty sure ATR has, in the past, sought to rally tea party activists to their cause,” Erickson wrote on his blog. “Just remember from now on that ATR’s tax policy director is pretty sure you guys are, in his words, ‘freaking retarded.'”
