Former Tea Party Express chairman and “accidental” racist Mark Williams is really happy about the recently announced CNN-Tea Party Express Republican debate: “That a respected international, serious news organization like CNN, CNN Political Director Sam Feist and even the potential presidential candidates recognize that the Tea Party is anything but racist and were willing to fight to join simply thrills me.”
“I feel completely vindicated, this is an absolute vindication of both the Tea Party and Mark Williams,” Mark Williams said.
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Tea Party Express Hosts ‘National Black Conservatives Rally’]
Mark Williams resigned from his position with the Tea Party Express over the summer, after making a number of racist remarks that caused a stir within his group and the tea party movement.
Among his remarks: He called President Obama “our half white, racist president” and an “Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug.” He also referred to Allah as a “monkey god” and Islam as “a 7th Century death cult coughed up by a psychotic pedophile.”
And, in an episode that brought Williams’ career with the Tea Party Express to a close, he referred to the NAACP and pondered the “absurdity of a group that calls blacks ‘Colored People’ hurling charges of racism.”
Williams posted about his “vindication” on his website MarkTalk.com, and though he emphasizes that he apologized for his remarks, he also is sure to point out that what he said was true:
What this CNN/TPX agreement proves is that what I said was right but reinforces in my own mind that it was said stupidly. Because I said it stupidly I left myself wide-open to demagogues and race baiters-exploiters who were only just too happy to do their best to destroy the Tea Party with my words as their weapon.
