Mark Williams, the former chairman and current spokesperson of Tea Party Express, went on MSNBC today to again deny that there is any racism in the tea party, and to bash the NAACP for daring to point out the obvious examples of bigotry within the movement. 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 hasdocumented, 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 neverreally materialized, and basic common sense should tell Williams that the group couldn’t possibly be responsible for every single racist sign.
Yesterday, NAACP president Benjamin Jealous called out tea party leaders, like Dick Armey, saying, “Dick we don’t think your racist, we’re just disappointed that you’re being silent in at the racism amongst your ranks.” A good place for Armey to break that silence would be with Williams.
Yesterday, Tea Party enthusiast Sean Hannity was set to headline the Cincinnati Tax Day Tea Party. The Cincinnati Tea Party’s (CTP) flier said that not only would the event feature a live taping of Hannity’s show, but the Fox News host would also be holding a book signing. Tickets cost $5 for general admission and $20 for “seats around the Hannity set.” According to the flier, all proceeds would benefit the CTP:
Media observers and longtime journalists criticized Hannity’s arrangement as unethical. “It violates virtually every rule of every ethical guideline that journalism covers,” said Frank Sesno, who spent two decades at CNN and is now director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. “The idea that you would support a [political] movement and ask your audience to pay for it.”
As recently as yesterday afternoon, Fox News was still promoting Hannity’s appearance. During his show — which was airing live from a Tea Party in San Antonio, TX — fellow host Glenn Beck was still promoting Hannity’s Cincinnati show later that night. However, shortly before the event, “angry” Fox News executives yanked Hannity. The LA Times reported:
But senior Fox News executives said they were not aware Hannity was being billed as the centerpiece of the event or that Tea Party organizers were charging for admission to Hannity’s show as part of the rally. They first learned of it Thursday morning from John Finley, Hannity’s executive producer, who was in Cincinnati to produce Hannity’s show.
Furious, top officials recalled Hannity back to New York to do his show in his regular studio. The network plans to do an extensive post-mortem about the incident with Finley and Hannity’s staff.
“Fox News never agreed to allow the Cincinnati Tea Party organizers to use Sean Hannity’s television program to profit from broadcasting his show from the event,” said Bill Shine, the network’s executive vice president of programming. “When senior executives in New York were made aware of this, we changed our plans for tonight’s show.”
Shortly after the scheduled book signing (which was canceled) Fox News producers onsite informed the Cincinnati Tea Party senior leadership that Mr. Hannity had to rush home for a personal emergency. The Cincinnati Tea Party expressed a statement of support and concern to Hannity and family.
The Cincinnati Tea Party received information from local media attributing concerns regarding ticketing to a executive vice president at the Fox News Network. The Cincinnati Tea Party has not been able to confirm the authenticity of this message via a source this statement to any @foxnews.com email or http://www.FoxNews.com website. Emails and phone calls to network went unanswered until 7:48 p.m. — more than four hours after the scheduled appearance; this source has not yet put it in writing despite our request.
The CTP’s post added that the organization is not profiting from the Hannity event; all ticket proceeds are going to “offset the cost of the event.”
Update A tea party activist who attended the Cincinnati rally produced this video to criticize Fox News and Hannity for failing to attend:
By 
