CBS News contributor Nancy Giles rudely told St. Louis Tea Party founder Dana Loesch to shut her mouth during a panel discussion on Wednesday's "Larry King Live."
In the midst of a heated debate about allegations of racism within the movement, Giles asked, "Where is the Tea Party's outrage when members of their own party spit on members of the United States [Congress]?"
Loesch accurately replied, "That was proved false. Let's not engage in defamation and libel."
"Excuse me," barked Giles. "I'm talking so shut your mouth."
When Loesch told Giles, "Be honest when you speak and I wouldn't have to interrupt you," Giles again barked, "You know, Larry, can you just turn off her mike?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
BEN STEIN, ECONOMIST AND FORMER PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH WRITER: Well, it's interesting, I know lots of people in the Tea Party Movement. I've never heard one racist word out of any of them, and I was quite suspicious about it to start with. I thought it must be some kind of cover for racist feelings.
And I've questioned people close - people very close to me about it very intensely. I never heard a racist word out of any of them.
KING: What do you make of that billboard?
STEIN: It was the act of a very, very reckless and stupid person.
KING: Stephanie?
STEPHANIE MILLER, TALK RADIO HOST: Even the other Tea Baggers (ph), I loved that they - they actually didn't, you know, they condemned the sign, but only because they thought it was a waste of money. One of the leaders we quoted today said, well, he is sort of Hitler-esque, but it was not a - a good, you know - you know, spending of money, and I thought, "What? How can you be Hitler-esque?"
I mean, the thing is just - the Tea Party is going to do nothing but hurt the Republican Party and I couldn't be happier.
KING: Dana, you're co-founder of the St. Louis Tea Party. What do you make of all of this?
DANA LOESCH, CO-FOUNDER, ST. LOUIS TEA PARTY: I think Stephanie's comment about tea baggers, what are we, on the playground here? I mean, seriously, we're on - we're on Larry King's show, let's keep it classy. My whole thing about this is that -
MILLER: They call themselves tea baggers.
LOESCH: No, they don't. I was actually talking about your comment.
MILLER: They have tea bags hanging on their face.
LOESCH: But I'm not done talking so --
My whole - my whole thing with -
MILLER: OK.
LOESCH: -- this is that the Iowa, the Tea Party in Iowa, with the billboard, here's the difference in this situation. When the Tea Party Movement sees the coops (ph) within its own party, they get drummed out, if there are any. This billboard, maybe it went a little bit too extreme, maybe it went a little bit too far beyond the boundaries of good taste.
MILLER: A little bit?
LOESCH: Stephanie, I'm not done, sweetie.
MILLER: OK. All right, sweetheart.
LOESCH: Maybe it went a little beyond the bounds of good taste. But, the thing is -
MILLER: All right, lamb chop.
LOESCH: -- the Tea Party Movements went ahead and they - they repudiated it. When the NAACP - when Kenneth Gladney was being made fun of at an NAACP-sponsored press conference in St. Louis and Harold Crumpton who's on the board of the NAACP stood by and laughed along as people at that press conference called a black Conservative activist or someone affiliated with the Tea Party an Uncle Tom and a Negro, the NAACP didn't condemn that at all, so I think that's (INAUDIBLE).
MILLER: OK. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
KING: Let's get Nancy Giles. Nancy, what do you make of all this?
NANCY GILES, SOCIAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Well, where is the Tea Party's outrage when members of their own party spit on members of the United States --
LOESCH: That was proved false.
GILES: You know what? It wasn't proved false.
LOESCH: Let's not engaged in defamation and libel.
GILES: Excuse me. I'm talking so shut your mouth.
LOESCH: Well, be honest when you speak and I wouldn't have to interrupt you.
GILES: Excuse me. Excuse me.
LOESCH: Be truthful and I wouldn't have to.
GILES: Hey, be quiet. Where we you guys -
LOESCH: Speak the truth.
GILES: -- when -
You know, Larry, can you just turn off her mike? This is ridiculous.
KING: Oh, no. I'll run this show, Nancy. Go ahead.
GILES: I'm so sorry. They just - the thing that is so disturbing to me about the Tea Party is that their racist attitudes and the elements of the Tea Party that are racist and violent that show up with racist and violent imagery in their posters, that show up at rallies with guns, that show up and intimidate - emotionally intimidate people, helps move the Conservative, you know, far - closer and closer into - in contaminating the mainstream, doing things like -
KING: Well, that's a point.
GILES: -- criticizing Thurgood Marshall.
KING: Ben, you are a Conservative. Does the Tea Party Movement help or hurt your concept?
BEN STEIN, ECONOMIST AND FMR. PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHWRITER: I think it's going to hurt us in the election because it's going to divide the vote frankly. But -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
STEIN: But I think it's done. But I think - but I admire their attitudes. And it is not even slightly about racism.
I mean, the people who carry guns at those rallies are in parts of the country where people just habitually carry guns. I mean, my wife and I live in North Idaho during the summer. When we go to restaurant, people just have guns lying around in their cars because there's a lot of hunting there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ben, that's just not honest.
STEIN: It's completely - it's completely honest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's not honest.
(CROSSTALK).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a black -
KING: One at a time. Hold it. One at a time.
STEIN: Just a minute, Nancy. It's completely -
GILES: Nancy's not talking.
STEIN: I was there, you weren't. Nancy, I was there, you weren't, with all due respect. These are very fine wonderful people. They happen to carry guns in their cars.
GILES: Ben, if it was a black rally --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of (ph) them is black.
GILES: If it was a black rally with people carrying guns, you know that the response would be different.
STEIN: Nancy - Nancy, I didn't say it was a rally.
GILES: We're talking about rallies right now, Ben.
STEIN: I said outside the restaurant. I said (INAUDIBLE) -
GILES: Ben, we're talking about rallies. Ben -
STEIN: Nancy, I can hear.
GILES: -- we're talking about rallies.
STEIN: Nancy, I can hear.
KING: She said they're talking about rallies.
STEIN: And I said there are certain people -
GILES: We're talking about rallies.
STEIN: -- in parts of the - there are certain parts of the country where people carry guns routinely.
GILES: At rallies, Ben?
(CROSSTALK).
KING: Hold it. Stephanie, hold it.
MILLER: Ben, I'm not saying you're a Conservative or a lot of Conservatives I know are racist. But, you can't ignore that you've seen these kind of racist signs at Tea Party rallies, and this kind of rhetoric. You can't just --
STEIN: I can't ignore that there are irresponsible people in every part of the political spectrum. But the idea that a person who carries a gun is a racist and plans to use that gun -
MILLER: When they have a sign next to it that's threatening -
STEIN: If that said, it says I'm going to use this gun on Obama. There's nobody who's been shown to do that. That's just made up.
For those that aren't familiar, Giles has a history of playing the race card at the drop of a hat.
Who can forget her shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit accusing President Bush of not giving a damn about black people?
But what was most hypocritical about her current tirade was the full context of the discussion.
Earlier in the show, King had addressed the billboard in Iowa comparing Obama to Hilter and Lenin. When he asked Stein, "What did you make of that billboard," that's what he was referring to.
With this in mind, readers are reminded that on the October 5, 2003, broadcast of CBS's "Sunday Morning," Giles compared Rush Limbaugh to Hitler.
I guess making such comparisons aren't racist or verboten when they're about a conservative.
Any questions?
