In the wake of Tea Party Express spokesman Mark Williams’ controversial racially-tinged blog post this week, organizers of the group are taking pains to make it clear that Williams’ official role in the movement is not what it once was. Williams resigned as chair of the TPE weeks ago to devote, he said, more attention to fighting the construction of a Muslim community center near Ground Zero. But only now, after the controversy surrounding Williams’ post attacking the NAACP caused reporters to ask questions has Williams’ listed positions with the organizations associated with the TPE been changed on official websites.
At the start of the week, Williams was listed as a “vice chairman” on the website for the Our Country Deserves Better PAC. Now, the site shows Williams listed as a “spokesperson” for the PAC. The same goes for the Tea Party Express website — it still listed Williams as the group’s chair until yesterday, when it was changed to reflect Williams’ resignation from the group in June.
Joe Wierzbicki, the coordinator for TPE and the PAC, confirmed that the changes were made to the websites Friday after press inquiries surrounding Williams’ controversial blog post. Williams removed the post Friday, but the controversy surrounding it has continued.
“That was what prompted reporters to ask,” Wierzbicki said of the controversy, “and so we thought ‘we better go get [the website] addressed right now.’”
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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