On Tuesday, NAACP President Emeritus Julian Bond appeared on MSNBC and called the tea party the "Taliban wing of American politics."
THOMAS ROBERTS: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle coming down on what we're seeing today in the IRS apparently targeting these tea party groups. Doing so at a time in 2010 during the mid-term elections where we saw an up rise in the tea party sweeping in the Congress. Shouldn't there not be the same level of outrage certainly from the White House? I mean, at the time in '04, Congressman Charlie Rangel called the audit a police state tactic. Do you think that there might be a double standard being looked at here?
JULIAN BOND: No, I don't think there's a double standard at all. I think it's entirely legitimate to look at the tea party. Here are a group of people who are admittedly racist. Who are overtly political, who've tried as best they can to harm President Obama in every way. I don't think there are correct parallels between those two incidents. It was wrong for the IRS to behave in this heavy handed manner. They didn't explain it well before or now what they're doing and why they're doing it. But there are no parallels between these two.
ROBERTS: Chairman Bond, what do you think the fallout will be for the Obama administration? Especially during a time where the tea party had maybe lost a little air? Do you think this is going to help inflate that, especially as we ramp up to the midterms for 2014?
BOND: I hope not. I hope they don't get any more air. They are the Taliban wing of american politics. We all ought to be a little worried about them.
ROBERTS: Sir, do you think that's a little harsh, calling them the Taliban wing of American politics?
BOND: Not at all. The truth may hurt, but it's the truth.