The organizers of some major Florida tea party groups, for instance, on Thursday morning released an open letter to Congress and President Barack Obama declaring they “stand in stark opposition to any person using derogatory characterizations, threats of violence, or disparaging terms toward members of Congress or the President.”

The letter calls the tea parties “a peaceful movement” and says its leaders denounce “all forms of violence” and “support all efforts to bring [any perpetrators] to justice and have encouraged full cooperation within our movement and have asked for the same from the members of Congress who have laid such claims.”…

And Toby Marie Walker, co-founder of the 5,000-member Waco, Texas Tea Party, as well as Mark Skoda, organizer of the Memphis, Tenn., Tea Party and a leader in an umbrella group called the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, said Thursday morning that their respective groups were drafting statement that will condemn the violence.

Walker emphasized “we do not condone” offensive “language, racial slurs or other poor behavior,” adding “we discourage it and will have (perpetrators) removed from our events.”