Mark Williams

Disgraced Ex-Tea Party Leader Promises To 'Infiltrate And Sabotage' Obama 2012

Jillian Rayfield | April 4, 2011, 4:56PM

Tea Party activist Mark Williams.

Former Tea Party Express spokesman Mark Williams, who stepped down from the group after making a series of racist remarks, has a plan to "infiltrate and sabotage" the Obama campaign by volunteering as a campaign worker.

In an interview with TPM, Williams could not specify what exactly his subterfuge would entail, but said it would probably "come under the general heading of 'not exactly representing him in a fine light.'"

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Tea Party

Tea Party Express Tries To Exorcise Mark Williams With African American Speakers

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 4, 2010, 6:01PM

More than a dozen African American speakers gathered in Washington today to help the Tea Party Express shed its ties to former chair, spokesperson and racial burr in its saddle, Mark Williams. Though the TPE never publicly rebuked Williams after his racially controversial blog post led to his resignation from the group, the speakers from the podium at the event today -- billed as a National Black Conservatives Rally -- were more than willing to call him out.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Tea Party Express Hosts 'National Black Conservatives Rally']

"How many times do they have to pluck that bad apple out of the barrel before people quit focusing on it?" said Herman Cain, an African American talk show host. "The [tea party] movement is millions of people and hundreds of organizations.

But though the speakers at the podium denied it, Williams was the reason for the event today. His antics -- which rose to the level of national attention after the NAACP passed a resolution claiming that the tea party harbors racism in its ranks -- caused the first serious self-reflection on race relations in the movement and, today, led to some African Americans associated with the TPE to criticize the group over how it dealt with it its one-time star.

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Tea Party

Mark Williams Quits The Tea Party Express

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 23, 2010, 2:42PM

Tea Party activist Mark Williams.

One of the most prominent men in the tea party movement, Tea Party Express spokesperson and former chair Mark Williams, is abandoning the group he helped propel into the role of the tea party's public face.

"Over a month ago, Williams stepped down as Chairman of the organization to pursue other activities, but still offered to remain available as a spokesperson as needed in the future," TPE spokesperson Levi Russell said in a statement to reporters today. "Today, he went further to completely cut his ties to the Tea Party Express."

In his resignation letter to the TPE, Williams says he left the group after the past week's public battle with the NAACP made him too hot to handle.

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Tea Party Express

Tea Party Express: Our Candidates Will Stick By Us, Despite Mark Williams

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 22, 2010, 12:15PM

Founding Tea Party Express member Joe Wierzbicki.

The Tea Party Express is confident the candidates it has supported will stand by the group, despite the growing ostracism of its controversial spokesperson, Mark Williams. The TPE has played a role in a number of high-profile conservative campaigns this year, pumping more than a million dollars into the coffers of tea party favorites across the country, ranging from Scott Brown in Massachusetts to Joe Miller in Alaska to Sharron Angle in Nevada. The group is promising to spend more, and that fact will keep conservative candidates from leaving the TPE behind, the group's national coordinator Joe Wierzbicki told me yesterday.

"No, I don't think too many candidates are going to turn away our support when they know that our membership is the most actively engaged - politically - of any of the tea party groups," he said.

But other tea party leaders say that after the firestorm over Williams' racially-tinged blog post last week, abandoning the TPE would be a good idea for some of the candidates the embattled group has backed.

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2010 elections

Team TPE: The Tea Party Express Candidates Who Wish Mark Williams Never Opened His Mouth

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 21, 2010, 9:08AM

Tea Party Express spokesman Mark Williams (Rep. Walt Minnick (D-ID), Sen. candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV) and Sen. candidate Marco Rubio (R-FL) inset)

For most conservative candidates this year, a strong endorsement from a tea party group is something to be treasured and touted. But what happens when the tea party that supported you happens to be the increasingly-ostracized Tea Party Express, hauling the baggage of its very much ostracized spokesperson, Mark Williams?

Williams, of course, has come under all sorts of fire for his racist blog post last week needling the NAACP after they passed a resolution calling on the tea party to condemn its more racist elements.

This creates a problem for several high-profile Republican candidates -- and even one Democrat. Do they disavow Williams and the TPE, and risk steaming the very tea partiers who made them who they are today? Or do they stick with Williams and the Express and risk being labeled racist sympathizers -- which even in this electoral climate is still a bad thing?

Here's how four key Tea Party Express-backed candidates are handling this quandary. And surprise, surprise -- they're largely trying to delicately sidestep the issue.

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Tea Party

Second Tea Party Group Distancing Itself From Mark Williams

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 19, 2010, 11:11AM

Tea Party activists in Washington, D.C.

There's evidence this morning that even more tea partiers are seeking to distance themselves from the Tea Party Express' Mark Williams and his racially-tinged rhetoric. In an email sent to its members this morning, the Tea Party Nation group appeared to back away from Williams and make it clear that it doesn't agree with his controversial anti-NAACP blog post.

"As most of you are aware, one of the leaders in the tea party movement posted a controversial blog many took to be racist," Tea Party Nation leaders wrote in the email obtained by TPMDC. "Tea Party Nation and many other groups have repudiated racism and racists ... We have banned members who were racists and will ban any members who show themselves to be racist."

"The Tea Party Movement is not racist," the leaders add. "Tea Party Nation welcomes all patriots, regardless of gender, ethnicity or national origin to join us and help save this great country."

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Mark Williams

Mark Williams Slams Tea Party Group For Kicking Him Out

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 19, 2010, 10:16AM

Tea Party activist Mark Williams.

In a long post on his personal blog -- the site of the astounding post last week about the NAACP that may prove to be the undoing of his career as a tea party leader -- the Tea Party Express' Mark Wiliams slammed the Tea Party Federation for kicking the Express out of the Federation because of him.

The Tea Party Federation voted unanimously to boot the Tea Party Express out of the organization on Saturday after a week of negative press coverage following Williams' anti-NAACP screed. Yesterday, Williams took aim at Tea Party Federation David Webb, who discussed his group's removal of Williams and his group on CBS' Face The Nation.

"Apparently I have offended the tea party 'leadership,'" Williams wrote. "Mind you, there is no tea party leadership; every tea partier is a tea party leader. But something happens when the stronger egos and personalities in a movement begin to feel a sense of ownership. It is not long before they act to claim and defend that feeling."

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Tea Party

Tea Party Federation Boots Mark Williams, Tea Party Express

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 19, 2010, 9:52AM

Tea Party Express spokesperson Mark Williams.

Mark Williams, spokesperson for the Tea Party Express and author of last week's racial attack on the NAACP, is threatening to cause a civil war in the tea party movement. Over the weekend, the Tea Party Federation -- a group of grassroots tea party groups from across the country that hopes to create a unified voice for the movement -- voted unanimously to kick out the Tea Party Express unless it removes Williams from its leadership and takes steps to "publicly rebuke" him.

The move suggests at least some tea partiers are growing uncomfortable with Williams, whose racist-sounding screed aimed at the NAACP last week led to days of coverage on cable news. The screed, not the first time Williams has found himself in hot water over racially-tinged comments, was posted to Williams' personal blog, but has led to questions directed at the Tea Party Express about the NAACP resolution as well.

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Tea Party Express

After Firestorm Over Racist Post, Mark Williams Demoted On Tea Party Websites

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 17, 2010, 12:58PM

Tea Party Express spokesperson Mark Williams.

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.

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Mark Williams

Mark Williams Removes Racist Blog Post, Calls for Racial Harmony...Kind Of

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 16, 2010, 2:27PM

Tea Party activist Mark Williams.

A day after he posted a screed to his personal website calling the NAACP "racist" for using the word "colored" in its name, the Tea Party Express' Mark Williams has taken the post down and called upon tea partiers and NAACP activists alike "to fight those who seek to divide us by race, no matter the color of the racist."

These are the words of a man who, yesterday, posted a faux letter from NAACP President Ben Jealous -- whom he called "Tom's Nephew" in the letter -- to Abraham Lincoln meant as a protest of the recent NAACP resolution calling on tea party leaders (like, for example, Williams) to disavow racist signs and rhetoric that have been at least a small part of some tea party gatherings. A sample of the fake letter, now removed from Williams' blog:

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government "stop raising our taxes." That is outrageous! How will we Colored People ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

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Tea Party Express

Tea Party Express' Mark Williams: NAACP's Use Of 'Colored' Makes It Racist

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 15, 2010, 6:43PM

Tea Party Express spokesperson Mark Williams.

The Tea Party Express' Mark Williams -- fresh off his claim that the NAACP makes "more money off of race than any slave trader, ever" -- took to his personal blog today to offer an at least racist-ish screed calling out the NAACP for continuing to use the word "Colored" in its name.

In the post, Williams calls NAACP President Ben Jealous "Tom's Nephew" and ties tea party calls for smaller government to "emancipation" (which, of course, is just steps away from the standard tea party line that Democratic policies amount to "tyranny.")

But the central theme centers around, as Williams writes, the "absurdity of a group that calls blacks 'Colored People' hurling charges of racism."

Here's a sample (the post is written in the form of a mock letter to President Abraham Lincoln from Jealous):

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