Vice President Joe Biden called the tea party “crazy” and said its adherents have “no judgment” during a closed-door meeting Tuesday, CNN reported.
A source who attended Biden’s meeting with black clergy in South Carolina provided CNN with a detailed readout of the vice president’s candid comments.
“This is not your father’s Republican Party,” Biden told the audience of more than 100 ministers, according to CNN’s source in the room. “This is a different breed of cat, man. I am not making a moral judgment, but I will tell you that they have no judgment.”
The vice president further predicted that chaos would reign if if Republicans were to control both houses of Congress after the midterm elections.
“If they win again, we are going to get no consensus on anything for the next two, four, six years,” Biden reportedly said. “But if we beat some of these folks, it’s going to give some spine to the Republicans who know better.”
Biden’s office declined to comment to CNN on the remarks.
The vice president has had choice words for the far right before. Biden reportedly said that tea party Republicans “acted like terrorists” in the 2011 debt ceiling debate.
