July 19-23, 2010: Tea Party Official Steps Down from Leadership Position, Denies Racist Comments Involved

Mark Williams, a conservative talk radio host in Sacramento and a prominent spokesman for the nationally based Tea Party Express (TPE), announces he is stepping down as the head of the TPE. Williams says his decision is impelled by his interest in stopping the construction of Cordoba House (later renamed Park51), a Muslim community center to be built near the site of the destroyed World Trade Center, and his attempt to secure a position on the Sacramento City Council and to lead a recall effort of some council members. “What I’m doing is thinking globally and acting locally,” he says. He says he will continue to function as TPE’s spokesman and a featured speaker, but will no longer be involved in day-to-day managerial duties. “I’ll still be shooting my mouth off and appearing on TV,” Williams says. “I just won’t be as critical in strategy which is fine by me.” Williams denies that he is stepping down because of the controversy generated by recent statements he has made about the NAACP which many have decried as racist (see July 14, 2010 and July 15, 2010), and his recent expulsion from the National Tea Party Federation (see July 17-18, 2010). [CNN, 7/19/2010] Shortly thereafter, Williams sends a letter to TPE officials that announces he is resigning from the group entirely. In the letter, he says he needs to part ways with the group so “the media and our domestic enemies” will move past the racist controversy. “We are in a war for the future of this country and the left and their allies in the news media have decided to use my personal comments and views as a weapon to injure the tea party movement and conservative activists. I will simply not allow them to do this.… I am going to continue to fight on the side of liberty but it is clear that doing so with any affiliation with the Tea Party Express is not the best way to do so.” [Associated Press, 7/23/2010; CNN, 7/23/2010] In the past, Williams has called President Obama the “racist in chief” (see September 14, 2009) and “our half white, racist president” (see September 2009). He has called Muslims “animals” who worship a “monkey god” (see May 14, 2010).