TJMS: Roland Martin talks with Coby Dillard, African-American Member of the Tea Party about Mark Williams’ Letter
Coby Dillard is an African-American Tea Party member who is also the Co-Founder of the Hampton Roads Tea Party.
Roland Martin asks Coby Dillard for his reaction to Mark Williams’ letter to Abraham Lincoln … from the Coloreds. Dillard says, “…first of all he [Mark Williams] doesn’t speak for me, he doesn’t for anyone in the Tea Party with the exception of possibly the organization [that] he’s a part of, which is Tea Party Express”. Dillard continues by saying, “I’ve got no problem with denouncing and disagreeing with everything he says”.
Roland explains that Williams is considered to be one of the Tea Party’s major leaders and he is identified as their spokesman. Dillard responds to this by saying, “He’s a spokesman for the Tea Party Express, which is his organization, and as far as I’m concerned, he’s an idiot. And I have no problem saying that”.
Roland also asks Dillard if he and others are going to call for Williams to be removed from Tea Party events and isn’t he a prime example of the racist elements the NAACP is talking about and why they passed the resolution. Dillard replies by stating, “He’s an example of a single racist that is taking the message of the Tea Party and bending it towards his own agenda”. Dillard also says, “that he shouldn’t be participating in the movement, we shouldn’t be considering him as one of our major speakers, because the things that he is talking about, especially in this letter, has got nothing at all to do with what the Tea Party is about and what we stand for”.
Roland closes the discussion by saying, “Let’s see if Sarah Palin has the guts to be a mama grizzly and denounce this letter”.
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