Charlie Rangel: How Did Obama Think He Could Work with ‘Mean, Racist’ Tea Party?

During an appearance on NY1 Tuesday night, Congressman Charlie Rangel took a shot at tea party Republicans for refusing to work with President Obama, and wondered how Obama ever thought in the first place he could get things done with “mean, racist” people in the halls of Congress.

Rangel joked that maybe it was the “water they drink at Harvard” that made Obama so optimistic, but whatever the case, Rangel said tea partiers are just flat-out racist and, even beyond that, suggested they’re flying the Confederate flag (which is not the first time he’s ever linked Republicans to the Confederacy).

“They are mean, racist people. Now, why do I say that? Because in those red states, they’re the same slave-holding states! They had the Confederate flag, they became Dixiecrats, they had the Confederate flag, and the tea party, they’ve still got the Confederate flag! I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

In the past, Rangel has called the tea party “crackers” who decades ago were opposing civil rights.

Watch the video below, via NY1:

[h/t Salon]

[photo via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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