“I think what makes them a dirty word is that when they first came into power nobody knew what they were. When I was running in 2010 tea party groups would picket my little events. And I would go over to them and they’d say ‘senator get the your government’s hands out of my pockets.’ And I’d say ‘what kind of health care do ya got?’ and they’d say ‘Medicare. Don’t you touch it,’” New York Senator Chuck Schumer, a top party strategist, said. “It was filled with contradictions. It was based on anger, a belief that the America they knew and believed was drifting away from them.”
Schumer called the Tea Party’s low, low new profile “great,” and took a modicum of credit for its decline…
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy said that while he did not realize the phrase Tea Party was absent from the GOP convention’s main stage said the principles the movement stands for were prevalent and remain a part of the party’s identity.
“I think what the Tea Party stands for is fiscal responsibility, a different economic direction. I think all those issues that the Tea Party cares about were mentioned on the stage. And I think that is what people were looking for,” McCarthy said Monday.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member