Charlie Rangel: Tea Partiers are ‘Mean, Racist People’ from ‘Slave-Holding States’

Photo Credit: Talk Radio News Service / Creative CommonsNew York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel casually dismissed those who identify with the Tea Party as “mean, racist people,” compared red states to the Confederacy and wondered why President Barack Obama would ever try to work with Republicans — all in under two minutes.

Rangel made the remarks during an interview Tuesday night with NY1, when the anchor asked the congressman about a recent deadly explosion in his Harlem district. The congressman strangely blamed Republicans for blocking unnamed federal programs designed to refurbish failing infrastructure in his community.

“This is the president’s program,” he claimed. “It’s hard for me to explain how you work with a president that thought he could really deal with the Republican leadership. He really thought — and maybe it’s the water they drink at Harvard — that he could deal with the Tea Party!”

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