Indiana Rep. Andre Carson is taking a lot of heat today, after comments he made accusing the Tea Party of being racist were posted on The Blaze (see video). “This is the effort that we’re seeing of Jim Crow,” Carson declared at a Congressional Black Caucus event last week. “Some of these folks in Congress would love to see us as second-class citizens. Some of them in Congress right now of this Tea Party movement would love to see you and me ... hanging on a tree.”
Right-wing blogs like Hot Air cried foul. Rep. Allen West told Fox News that invoking lynching was “reprehensible” and said it was making him reconsider his Congressional Black Caucus membership. But a Carson spokesman tells Politico he stands by the comments. “The congressman used strong language because the Tea Party agenda jeopardizes our most vulnerable and leaves them without the ability to improve their economic standing,” he said. (More Andre Carson stories.)