Charlie Rangel: It’s hard to distinguish between racist Dixiecrats and the Tea Party

RANGEL: Yeah. If you take a look at where the Dixiecrats are and look at where the Tea Party people are, it is hard to distinguish. Find out where the confederate flag is that they wave with the Tea Party. Find out which states hated Lincoln and which states have representatives that hate Obama. Find out which states held slaves.

HOST: When you say that, when you look at the Tea Party today, and you can say, that this is a movement with a lot of support from its heavily white, heavily southern, heavily conservative – certainly back then heavily white southern and all that. Is race the motivating factor are you saying for the Tea Party, though?

RANGEL: I don’t have to say a darn thing except you can see where they come from. You can see what the opposition has been to voting rights and integration and all of those things. You know it came from the South, right? Now, if you see the same people changing their name, are you asking me, should I call the Tea Party whites racists?