‘Hugely Patriotic’: Tea Party Leaders Talk Movement Mission With Katie Couric


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CBS News: CBS Evening News Anchor Katie Couric spoke to Tea Party leaders Michael Johns and Kellen Guida about their movement and the frustrations of those who identify with it. The Tea Party movement, Johns said, was a "visceral reaction" to the idea that "our federal government was growing too large, that too much power was being centralized, and government bureaucracies that the American people were over-taxed, in some ways over-regulated."

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January 27, 2010 at 1:31 am - CBS News
Dateline:
Oh Katie. Too late.   January 26th, 2010 - 11:04 am

Hilarious. The MSM is scrambling to erase the past years worth of tea-bagging jokes and Nazi references. You stink.

Robert   January 26th, 2010 - 11:07 am

Ron Paul 2012

Sic Semper Tyrannis   January 26th, 2010 - 11:08 am

I think collapsing the American Banking system was/is absolutely the goal.

Liberty Lover   January 26th, 2010 - 11:12 am

Great Job guys explained it very well.
And katie was fair in her questions .

The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.” – Albert Camus

A government big enough to give you
everything you want, is strong enough to take
everything you have. -Thomas Jefferson
“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”

- Thomas Jefferson

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.
Benjamin Franklin

“There is no question that we have failed to live up to the dreams of the Founding Fathers many times and in many places. Sometimes we do better than others. But all in all, the one thing we must be on guard against is thinking that because of this, the system has failed. The system has not failed. Some human beings have failed the system.” –Ronald Reagan

H2K   January 26th, 2010 - 11:18 am

Katie, you and the other Manhattan elites think the Tea Party movement is now legitimate? Where were you a year ago as you were making fun of them?
What time does CBS evening news come on? I never watch it.

Robert   January 26th, 2010 - 11:45 am

Shills. Palin? Really?

How can these guys be tea party “leaders” when they dont even know how to answer a simple question as to where we stand on social issues?

How about they should be left up to the states?

infinitefreedom   January 26th, 2010 - 12:03 pm

Please read: http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/npo/1570655900.html

bsdn   January 26th, 2010 - 1:09 pm

“Too big to fail?”
Get serious. One, there’s a revolving door between Goldman Sachs, the Fed Reserve and the Treasury Dept. regardless of the administration in power.
Two, GS got paid out 100 cents on the dollar from AIG. That or something similar was what the bailout was largely about. If these guys wanted to throw the bones on the derivatives and they came up snake eyes, they’re the last ones to ask who’s too big to fail.
Three, we had government enforced politically correct affirmative action lending on the mortgages.
Four, the Fed. Reserve is a private corporate cartel/monopoly aka the central bank that price fixes the interest rate and manufactures (counterfeits) the money out of thin air. IOW the FR, a private unelected entity, manipulates the American economy via money creation and extension of credit. It doesn’t get any more fundamental than that. This private printing press is what funds and drives the deficit and the spending for the warfare and welfare on both sides of the aisles in Wash. DC. (There is no way aside from the silent/invisible tax of inflation, that Congress could pass the taxes to pay for these programs.) That’s what is driving the credit bubbles and the subsequent “too big to fail” busts.

The first Tea Party was held in conjunction with the Ron Paul campaign. Don’t forget it. Ben Gleck hopped on afterward and Mrs. Palin’s association with Juan Syndey McMussolini speaks for itself. Very poorly.

One last item, the US is the only industrialized nation without socialist universal medical care.
So what? The US is paying for the national defense of all these European countries, which includes Japan and Israel. That money, as Ron Paul says, should come home. Two, get big government, big pharma and big insurance out of healthcare. We don’t need more of the same under the name of “reform”. Further abolish the income tax, if not give a 100% tax write off to all medical expenses and stop restricting individuals from buying insurance because the ins. providers only want to do business with big business and lobby accordingly.

Sai Chai   January 26th, 2010 - 2:27 pm

For once, Couric almost completely pulled off a “fair” interview. But I wonder if, when she is speaking to other political groups affiliated more with the powers that be, does she dress so informally and address them as “guys”. Also, was it just me, or did the Twitter questions seem a little too perfect in their focus and grammar? And did I discern just a little smirk when she related a Twitter question that included the obnxious term, “tea baggers”??? A set up, gotcha little dig perhaps?

But the Tea Party spokespersons sounded intelligent and articulate, and the older gentleman did say social issues should be left to communities and states in a conversation overlay. I appreciated how he handled her comments about the perception that the citizens involved in the tea party movement are not dumb as a box of rocks but feel that certain political and media elites have appointed themselves “intelligentsia”, and that the arrogance of the eastern states toward those in the rest of the U.S. is offensive.
Overall, for Couric, a pretty good and fair interview.

Alamanda Patriot   January 26th, 2010 - 3:52 pm

Katie is back pedaling just like the Big O’. Now that they understand that we are a force to reckon with they are trying to make the world think that they have been listening to us all along. We know the truth and the truth will set us free. These liberals are going to do anything that they can to placate the public with words. We know that is all we are going to get. This administration will continue on the same path of socialism that was it’s agenda all along. We will continue to fight for our Liberty, our Freedom and our Republic. Fox TV has been the fair and balanced news station all along. You can have the others. It is too late to pretend that you now understand where we are coming from after calling us Nazi’s, Astro Turffers, and Mob’s etc. The media has had a love affair with the Big O’ and the infatuation is over. Too Late!!! You own it!

Whatwhatwhat   January 26th, 2010 - 6:02 pm

If you didn’t want to be called T-baggers you probably shouldn’t have started your group by asking people to mail teabags to people.

Mr. crackle   January 27th, 2010 - 1:56 am

Tea baggers….LOL…such a joke! Where was their movement in Oregon where the people just overwhelmingly voted to RAISE taxes. I suppose that is a sign that the Nation actually wants more taxes. You’ra a bunch of populist loons.

randr   January 27th, 2010 - 2:02 am

The tea party has no platform except anti-government rhetoric, that isn’t policy, it isn’t even something you can build policy on. If you don’t want government move to Somalia, they’re government free and doing great I hear.

S.brown   January 27th, 2010 - 2:14 am

Scott Brown voted for the Massachusetts health care reform which forces people to buy health insurance. Is he a tea bagger, in the non-gay way? cause I saw the nude centerfold he did and it gave me a funny feeling…ya know…down there.

Robert   January 27th, 2010 - 2:21 am

S.Brown, I’m not sure he fits with the tea party principles and I refuse to acknowledge his “centerfold” but his daughters on the other hand are amazingly gorgeous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

Calvin&Hobbes   January 27th, 2010 - 2:30 am

Vote “Tea Party” party in 2010.

john   January 27th, 2010 - 5:22 am

.

Tea Party rules!

Where were Katie Couric and the democrat-media when the crises seeds were sewn?
When reform was attempted and Barney Frank and the gang stopped it?

Be Vigilante. Marxism does not sleep.

SteveZ71   January 27th, 2010 - 6:46 am

Katie Couric needs a good dry-f’n. I would love to see the look on her face while that happens!

father_moray   January 27th, 2010 - 6:55 am

TONIGHT…they are bringing back the old TV show called: COMMUNISM: THE BIG LIE.

Screw Katie Kommrade: Omama’s State of Chaos speech tonight. See the very reason the US Constitution was designed to protect FREEDOM in the first place…er second reason…Obama, an unvetted foreign agent of soros and allah imploding America. Ask yourself this question: is losing the Race to Space, the World, our economy, our energy resources, and our entire American Way of Life …to the Chinese…is it worth it to have ObamaNational Chaos???? CHINA holds our loans…loans beyond repayment…and when the USDollar collapses, they recall, we default, they assume OWNERSHIP of the only thing we have left of VALUE. Our oil, gas, coal and electric grid.

Democrats pay off their decades old election financeers and then rule over their imposed GREEN MATRIX forever here at home.

So they think…BUY WEAPONS, GOLD and FOOD. Organize your neighborhoods…CHINA IS COMING…especially since the Democrats let them in the back door without anyone watching. And by the way, where did all the money go? (no answer) to foreign coffers.

John Campbell   January 27th, 2010 - 7:35 am

Having watched this interview two things strike me as something amiss. With all the e-mails/twitters Katie Couric would have received why use one with the “tea bagger” insult? No one else asked the same question with a better choice of words? More importantly, did anyone else notice that Couric appeared to be on a fishing expedition to try to find something to spark division in the movement? A movement founded on core founding father principles of smaller government and less taxes, liberty expanded instead of curtailed, and Couric is more interested in attacking religion, homosexuals, party affiliations, and the like. It makes me wonder if she’s gotten some marching orders.

Rose   January 27th, 2010 - 7:59 am

How can we go about getting this video on television where the majority of the public can see it? The explanations, so aptly put, by these two men should be seen by everyone—–can we make this happen just by writing CBS?

Chris DuFour   January 27th, 2010 - 8:14 am

Everybody wants to ask about abortion rights, and divide people along those lines. This is a trap, and a notorious tactic of the left to divide people. Someday people will wise up and just respond “I don’t believe that this is a government decision.”. What the heck would be wrong with that ? Just remove this topic from the discussion. It is not going to be solved by government anyway.

R Nelson   January 27th, 2010 - 9:12 am

Katie, mostly fair and adequately respectful. However, too little too late for me, I don’t respect you as a journalist. You do not properly disconnect your own political proclivities from your journalism and you don’t conduct yourself as a true patriot. Too in bed with the political elites ruining this country.

Jac   January 27th, 2010 - 9:23 am

Where are the teabagger jokes katie? You sure your speech has been approved by Nancy Jarrett?

Jaynie59   January 27th, 2010 - 9:53 am

Katie Couric is sooo condescending in this interview. Jeez.

As far as Scott Brown and the TEA Parties here in Mass: I am on the email list of the Worcester TEA Party. They stayed neutral. The few emails I got did not promote any one of the three candidates over another. As a matter of fact, they tended to screw up any information about Brown. Links to Coakley and Kennedy events always worked. The links to Brown events were always broken and didn’t work.

But hey, this IS Massachusetts after all. A Republican in Teddy’s seat was just too much for even a TEA Partier to consider.

Taxed Enough Already = TEA

Jeepers   January 27th, 2010 - 9:56 am

What I would have asked Katie is: Are all your questions really trying to ask me ‘is the tea party movement really the GOP in disguise?’

Faith based? No. Religious based? No. Do some in the tea party movement have religion? Yes. Is that okay? Fine, whatever, rock on.

I’ve met Dems/Reps/Ind. I’ve met religious and non religious people. They tolerate each other but that isn’t the focus. I’ve met prolife and prochoice people, do they get into it? Nope, that’s not at all the focus. Matter of fact, the fact that we’re united is refreshingly wonderful. The amount of REAL tolerance is amazing to watch. When you have people who in the past would have been debating tooth and nail stand together and realize ‘there is more that unites us than divides us’, it’s a powerful thing. When we say we must fight TOGETHER for the common good so that we remain free..what is more American than that? Talk about a melting pot.

The secret to the movement is that what we agree on is of a far greater present and pressing importance than what could divide us, namely fiscal responsibility, stopping the runaway train in Congress who is trying to spend us into oblivion and trying to hold on to our liberty as a free people.

THAT is the core of the movement. Stopping the spending, putting government back into it’s place and holding on to the idea that we are a free country where we’ll have enough breathing room to continue to make choices for ourselves, instead of everything being mandated/regulated by the government, NO MATTER WHAT THAT IS.

There is a point where the spending has to stop, else all that will be left is all of us being serfs to the government. Where there is no more American dream, we’re too busy working to serve the state. The more debt that we carry, the closer we get to slavery and the more that our freedoms erode. Choices made today can remove the freedom to make a choice in the future. The more power we give to Washington, the less we have for ourselves.

Not only are we no longer willing to give it up, we want back what we’ve lost in the process.

kay   January 27th, 2010 - 9:57 am

The failure of banks….especially in 1929….was preventable. 3 times J.P.Morgan has bailed out the government. The IDIOTs DON’T Learn. The government also bailed out GENERAL MOTORS back then.
I think these BAILOUTS are intentional. They learned if they get “too big to fail” taxpayers will give them a free ride for all the taxes they pay. To go bankrupt is one way to profit from tax money.
Tea baggers….understand this method of extortion…..back door deals…..corruption…..and union power. The tail now wags the dog……and good taxpaying citizens are fed up. We want our country back!!!!!!! Now!!!

Tom   January 27th, 2010 - 10:12 am

Katie stick with your nasty bolshevik anti white Anglo Saxon friends. Its scary when the people you are interviewing are 10 times as smart as you are.Is it not, face lift lipo Katie.

Simon Templar   January 27th, 2010 - 10:34 am

Katie was one of many that spewed an enormous amount of vitrol against conservatives and the “teabaggers.” Have you forgot already? She like many of the MSM is now running to the center, distancing themselevs from the “One”, and trying to appear as profesional objective journalist. Why? Well, because they are scared to death and know that they are next. Last week was an historic, political earth quake and they see the tidal wave of american resistance and conservative values on the horizon. Wow, now these guys are on her show and she is playing real nice.

D   January 27th, 2010 - 11:42 am

Glenn Beck and Sara Palin are both establishment puppets. Somebody wake these guys up.

clay barham   January 27th, 2010 - 12:01 pm

American liberty and prosperity began as a seed planted by about fifty people in New England almost 400 years ago. There were no government caretakers, so they had to do everything for themselves, think out of the bubble and live out of the box of Old World tyranny they left behind. All individuals were their own government. Each shared governance with others close to them for defense. Government was close, no more than a day’s horseback ride in counties so citizens could change it when needed, advise it in town hall meetings, vote to change it, and punish it by vigilance committees, as people ruled government. Today, government has moved far away, grown, become an organized crime, stealing from and harming its people. The Tea Party movement has come into being as is our tradition. See The Changing Face of Democrats, Losing Our Libertarian Roots on Amazon.com and claysamerica.com.

temple62   January 27th, 2010 - 12:43 pm

“I wanted to talk to you guys” – since when. After a year she wants to play the game of reporting all sides of the news. Ban watching CBS and boycott this little girl’s website as well, CBS is not on the right side!

kyartist   January 27th, 2010 - 12:55 pm

Couric is right…she is one of the media “enemy”. I watched the entire interview, even though her snide smugness is difficult to stomach. I’ve come away with the knowledge that she was not nearly as bright or informed at the men she was interviewing. Here’s hoping the Tea Party grows and flexes its muscle in the upcoming elections. They are the only thing between this country and the socialist/marxists who have hijacked the Democratic party!

jason   January 27th, 2010 - 1:08 pm

First Off – Tea Partiers HAVE NO LEADERS.
That’s the beauty of the movement.

These guys don’t speak for me. ChuckleHeads.
Hobnobbin with Katie Couric?

Blow these guys outta here.

If the chipmunk wants to see and talk with real TPers then she’ll have to get off the stool and come out to the Whitehouse on April 15th.

DTOM!
http://RightWingStuff.com

thefedupamerican   January 27th, 2010 - 1:09 pm

Wow! Katie finally noticed there’s a Tea Party Movement going on! Didn’t notice the Tea Parties when they happened. Denigrated the almost 2 million people in DC on 9/12 but hey, after Massachusetts….NOW we gotta take notice! To little too late Katie!

For the top 10 (funny) reasons to watch Obama tonight go here: http://www.thefedupamerican.com

gwalker   January 27th, 2010 - 1:17 pm

The teabaggers will never succeed because it is all racist rhetoric…..hahahahahah!!!!!

Have you considered attending a Rhetorics Anonymous meeting?

Joe Ryder   January 27th, 2010 - 1:53 pm

Have you seriously stopped and watched the media and socialist shift positions since the Brown election. They called Patriots names and now they are calling them what they are Citizens and Patriots. The problem is…Media or Socialist, Elitist haven’t changed one little bit. They are just placating us. Beware of this ploy…do not fall for this. They just want to make the independents feel like they are listening before the fall elections.

If Brown would have lost they wouldn’t even interview these men. Unfortunately Americans are soon forgetful. The elitist have found that over time we are a society of bitch and after a period of time we forget or roll over. WE CAN NOT DO THIS!! WE MUST VOTE THEM OUT!!! If not we lose everything that we have gained. This includes the Republicans that have served for 20,30, almost 40 years. They too have lost touch.

We need to elect true Patriots. We need term limits to end this Elitist attitude. We need to stop going by party wishes and go by the principles of Constitution, Country and, Liberty. We allow that (R) and (D) to creep in and it no longer is about America, it becomes all about the Party, and the Elitist that run that Party. A free thinking, Constitutionally minded, Patriot is worth more to me than any party be it Republican or Democratic. We need to throw off the chains of party and elect those that govern by Constitution. Limited government, private property rights, individual rights. Nothing more nothing less.

gwalker   January 27th, 2010 - 4:21 pm

hahahahahaha! hahahahahahah! hahahahah!
Is there a litmus test on who is and isn’t a
“true conservative”
or is that just an exclusive whites only club?

Jaywalker   January 27th, 2010 - 4:30 pm

I always thought that Ron Paul was pretty central to the Tea Party movement. WHY was he not mentioned?? He is an outspoken leader in washington for fiscal conservatism, and he has enacted policies and legislation that promote it as well.

So why was his name not mentioned, but Sarah Palin’s was?? is it because he is too controversial or something? I honestly don’t understand.

But I have also never understood why the Tea Party was not synonymous with libertarianism from the get go. They are pretty much the same thing: fiscally conservative, socially liberal, what more do you want?

Whats the deal?

Laffing at What(turd)what   January 28th, 2010 - 6:21 am

SteveZ71 January 27th, 2010 – 6:46 am
Katie Couric needs a good dry-f’n. I would love to see the look on her face while that happens!

We call it a Kaw Valley Ruff F*CK in my neck of the woods!

Hey, What(turd)what I got the pliers if you got the mouth dumbass. You can T-bag ME you little puke…. I got the balls unlike YOU!!

Jaywalker Ron Paul is a nutjob! He is a fringe libertarian he’s only correct on our monetary problems…..

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