A tea partier named Nathan Tabor, who was filming a protest against Rep. Mel Watt's office in Greensboro, North Carolina, this week was punched in the face by a man who disagreed with the protest. This afternoon, during an appearance on Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, Tabor blamed President Obama for the punch he received:
CAVUTO: Very, very weird. I'm glad you're all right. I'm glad your daughter's all right, your wife's all right. Man, oh, man, it is weird. It is very, very weird.
TABOR: You know, Neil, here's the interesting thing. I think he took -- you know, Barack Obama, President Barack Obama said a few weeks ago you know, “go to your neighbors and get in their face.” Well, you know, that is a very -- you know, if they're going to have to use violence to step on the constitution -- everybody be aware.
CAVUTO: Well to be fair, I don't think the president was recommending violence but it did -- this is weird. But we're going to watch this very closely. Thank you and be well.
Cavuto, to his credit, did offer at least some pushback on this ridiculous notion. However, Cavuto did not point out that the quote in question from Obama did not happen “a few weeks ago,” but instead came nearly two years ago, while he was still a candidate for the presidency.
CBS News reported in September 2008 that Obama advised his supporters on how to tell people the truth about his stance on the 2nd Amendment:
At a campaign event in Elko, Nevada, on Wednesday, Obama did incite his supporters to argue with people who question his commitment to protecting the Second Amendment.
“I need ya to go out and talk to your friends, and talk to your neighbors,” Obama said. “I want you to talk to 'em whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you argue with them, and get in their face, and if they tell ya, 'Well, we're not sure where he stands on guns,' I want you to say, 'He believes in the Second Amendment.' ”
Needless to say, September 2008 is not “a few weeks ago.”
But why would the average tea partier blame such an event on President Obama in the first place? Perhaps Nathan Tabor is not the average tea partier.
For starters, he currently is the chairman of the Republican Party of Forsyth County in North Carolina. Also, as noted by the blog Sadly, No!, Tabor wrote soon after Obama's inauguration in January 2009 that Democrats are racist, among other things:
The idea that our nation's Democratic leaders are anti-black, anti-minority, and anti-homosexual is an inconvenient truth. It is uncomfortable to read because it is uncomfortable to write. But, as an old adage goes, the truth will make you free. Only when Democrats confront their own bigoted demons can true progress begin, can we finally heal as a nation.
Why would a county-level Republican Party official, who has absurdly written that the Democratic leadership in our current government is “anti-black, anti-minority, and anti-homosexual,” blame an attack in Greensboro on the president?
Is this kind of intellectual dishonesty and victimhood representative of the Tea Party movement?