Republican strategist Karl Rove erroneously claimed Wednesday that Tea Party Express Chairwoman Amy Kremer was complicit in an emailed image that depicted him as a Nazi, deepening the conflictbetween Rove and the conservative grassroots. The image was actually sent out by a different Tea Party group after a vendor had inserted it without the Tea Party group’s knowledge or approval.
In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Rove accused Kremer and other Tea Party leaders asbeing “consultants who are more concerned with their fees and profitsthan they are with advancing the cause.” Kremer has since responded to Rove’s charges, calling them “false” and hypocritical.
Hannity asked Rove abouta recent incident involving a different Tea party group sending out afundraising letter showing Rove in a Nazi SS uniform. The group, Tea Party Patriots, apologized and explained that it was a third party who had inserted the image and not their own organization. After Hannityexpressed his desire for a Tea Party resurgence, he said, “TeaParty Patriots had you in a Nazi SS uniform, but they apologized. Let’sstart there.”
However, Rove targeted a different group,Tea Party Express, and its chairwoman Kremer:
Somebody sent out a picture of me in a fundraising letter with apicture of me as Heinrich Himmler, the SS chief, and I don’t know whatadult supervision was needed there, but they apologize and I acceptthat… It’s a little amazing that somebody would be so loose that theywould send out something as offensive as that… There was a lot ofattention paid to the Tea Party Patriot email over Miss Kremer’s namecalling me a Nazi and having a picture of me.
Rove continued, insinuating that his critics are “consultants” driven by money:
Look, we do have a problem on the Right. We have too manyorganizations that are run by consultants who are more concerned withtheir fees and profits than they are with advancing the cause. We gottoo many groups where they’re paying 15% to the media guy and thefundraiser gets a big slice out of every dollar that gets raised.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Kremer criticized Rove for dragigng her Tea Party organization into the controversy. “Once again Karl Rove got it wrong,” she stated. “The Tea Party Express is a completely separate organization than the TeaParty Patriots. Incorrectly calling me out by nameon Hannity’s show demonstrates how disconnected Mr. Rove is with thegrassroots and Tea Party movement.”
Kremer called for Rove to spend his energy on more fruitful pursuits than attacking potential allies. “I hope that Karl Rove spends lesstime making false accusations about people who want to work towards thesame goals and is serious about electing fiscal conservatives in 2014,” she chided.
Kremer further stated:
“For Karl Rove, who’s made millions off of right-of-center politics or his role in politics, to call me or other Tea Partyleaders out as money-driven or somehow wanting nothing but profits isabsurd. Rove is being a hypocrite.
“Tea party leaders, myself included,break ourselves financially and in every other way to help our movement,” Kremer said. “We sacrifice for our nation and I’m not aware of any Tea Party leaderswho have made millions doing this.”
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