So if you're a Tea Party leader and you post a racist online screed mocking NAACP "Coloreds" what does the media do? Why reward you with television appearances so you can try to sugar coat your hatred of course. Think Progress has more on his appearance with MSNBC's Tamron Hall.
When host Tamron Hall asked why not “move forward” by condemning extremism in both camps, Williams instead pointed fingers, blaming all cases of racism on agent provocateurs Crash the Tea Party. Even more absurd, Williams said it is “impossible” for the tea party movement to contain racist elements:
HALL: Do we move forward by either side calling out extremism in their party? [...]
WILLIAMS: It’s impossible — it’s impossible for there to be a racist element in the tea party, you don’t get it! The tea party is about human rights, it’s about the United States constitution. The United States constitution mankind’s foremost human rights document.
HALL: What about the signs of the president as an African with a bone in his nose? What is that? Is that about the constitution?
WILLIAMS: Those signs were brought by Crash the Tea party, the coalition of anti-tea party groups, google crashed the tea party. You will find it all there. … Buy my book!
Of course, as ThinkProgress has documented, Williams needs to look no farther than himself to know that it is not “impossible” for the tea party movement to contain racist elements. Moreover, William’s pathetic attempt to dismiss every single example of tea party racism as the work of Crash the Party is complete nonsense. If he took his own advice and googled Crash the Tea Party, he would see that the group didn’t even exist until April of this year — a year after racist and bigoted signs began appearing at tea party rallies. Beyond this, the counter-protesters never really materialized, and basic common sense should tell Williams that the group couldn’t possibly be responsible for every single racist sign.
This guy really is a piece of work. It's too bad Hall didn't call him out for trying to blame a group that didn't exist for those signs until way after those racist signs started showing up at their rallies. It was obvious she didn't buy his line but didn't challenge him either. John King didn't do much better and allowed Williams to paint a happy face on his extreme comments and his writing and claim that what he said was just "misconstrued". Williams knows he stepped in it or he wouldn't be trying to do this kind of damage control.
