Politics

29 percent of voters say tea partiers are terrorists

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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Vice President Joe Biden caught some flak recently after he and other Democrats reportedly compared tea partiers to terrorists during the debate to raise the debt ceiling.

But it turns out only 29 percent of Americans agree with him, according to a Rasmussen poll released Monday. Fifty-five percent disagree. (RELATED: Conservatives strike back against ‘Tea Party downgrade’ label)

Rasmussen’s poll surveyed 1,000 likely voters on Aug. 5 and 6, asking them, “Some people have accused the Tea Party of acting like economic terrorists during the budget debates.  Are members of the Tea Party economic terrorists?”

A spokesman for Biden, who according to Politico joined other Democrats in a closed-door meeting in making the comparison, distanced the vice president from the reports.

“The word was used by several members of Congress,” spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff told the publication. “The vice president does not believe it’s an appropriate term in political discourse.”

Well known tea party groups jumped on Biden’s remarks and called them insensitive.

“It is offensive, false and shocking that the person one step away from the Presidency calls Members of Congress, who were elected on tea party principles, a term used for the attackers on 9/11,” said Jenny Beth Martin, a national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots.