James Hoffa's call to 'take out' the Tea Party: 'Inexcusable'?

Teamsters Union President James Hoffa delivered a fierce anti-Tea Party speech to a Detroit crowd on Monday, shortly before President Obama took the stage.

(Image credit: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

The video: In a fiery Labor Day speech, Teamsters Union President James Hoffa accused the Tea Party of starting a "war on workers," and promised President Obama an army of voters to take the country back. (See the video below.) "We are ready to march," Hoffa said shortly before Obama took the stage at a Michigan rally Monday. "Everybody here's got to vote. If we go back, and we keep the eye on the prize, let's take these son of a bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong." Tea Party leaders quickly condemned Hoffa's remarks as an "inexcusable" call "for violence on peaceful Tea Party members." Hoffa says his rhetoric is no worse than what conservatives employ.

The reaction: "So, this is hope and change?" asks Jim Hoft at The Gateway Pundit. President Obama failed by not immediately distancing himself from this "violent and hateful rhetoric." Hold on, says Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs. The only reason right-wing bloggers are "going ballistic" over this is that Fox News, in one of its "sleaziest, most dishonest" distortions ever, repeatedly aired an edited portion of Hoffa's remarks that made it sound like he wanted to take out Tea Party Republicans with violence instead of ballots. Indeed, this is merely "standard tough-guy political talk," says Patterico's Pontifications. But liberals who "tried to blame Sarah Palin for the shooting of Gabby Giffords" should remember this the next time they complain that conservatives are talking too tough. Watch a Fox clip below: