Tea Party Express spokesman Mark Williams fired an unexpected response to a challenge from CNN contributor Roland Martin.
Asked to tell racists "you're not welcome" in the tea party, Williams replied, "Racists have their own movement. It's called the NAACP."
The exchange came on Wednesday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." A day earlier, the NAACP passed a resolution condemning the tea party for tolerating racism.
Williams wasn't alone in defending the tea party, as Sarah Palin took to the airwaves on Fox News to discuss the situation with Sean Hannity. While Palin is often a polarizing figure, Williams managed to outflank her in nine words.
WATCH:
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
MARTIN: Mark, here -- here's where I come from. The people who are on the stage, the folks who organize it, they are assuming a leadership position. The reality is this, Wolf -- and here's why I think, Wolf, the Tea Party people are making a mistake. There are examples where other Tea Party leaders -- Mark wants to deny it -- where they have said you're not going to sit here and pollute our situation with your racism. What the Tea Party folks should be saying in response to the NAACP is that we have actually done that. And in the future, if they're are going to ne people who bring racism, they are not welcome at our rallies.
BLITZER: All right, Mark, I'll be...
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: That's what should be saying.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: -- Amy Kremer of the Tea Party Express did exactly what you're suggesting. We did that at the very beginning. I'm not going to preface every sentence I say for the rest of my life, by the way, we're not racists. By the way, I don't beat my wife. We are what we are and when these vile people show up, they find out that we're -- we're not a happy home.
But as long as...
MARTIN: I'm glad you've matured in that...
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: they keep turning on the tv and listening to people like you, Roland, saying that that's where they'll find a happy..
MARTIN: No. That...
WILLIAMS: -- they'll keep showing up.
MARTIN: You're not going to lie on CNN. I never said that. And I have said that...
WILLIAMS: Look what you're saying...
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: Well, no, no, no...
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: Allow me to finish. I have said consistently, the Tea Party people have an absolute right to assemble, to protest. But what I have said, there is no room ...
WILLIAMS: That's gracious of you.
MARTIN: -- in that movement for racists. And what I've said is, you should come out and say you're not welcome here.
WILLIAMS: Racists have their own movement. It's called the NAACP.
MARTIN: Oh, that's nonsense.
WILLIAMS: Look, they've done more...
BLITZER: All right...
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: ,,,a bunch of old fossils looking to make a buck off skin color.