Tea Party HD

Bachmann, Coulter Named As Witnesses In Suit Over Alleged Tea Party TV Scam

Jillian Rayfield | January 27, 2012, 10:56AM

After no one took him up on his televised "lie detector challenge," the man accused of scamming his co-investors in the failed television venture Tea Party HD is trying to make his case by calling a number of high-profile conservative witnesses like Michele Bachmann and Ann Coulter to his defense.

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Bill Hemrick

Conservative Investors Sue Over Sham Tea Party TV Network

Jillian Rayfield | November 11, 2011, 6:25AM

A group of conservative investors in Tennessee is suing a California businessman for allegedly conning them into investing in Tea Party HD, a TV channel aimed at tea partiers, that they say turned out to be a scam.

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Judson Phillips

Tea Party Nation Head Defends Pat Buchanan: The Real 'Racist Nuts' Are In Color Of Change

Jillian Rayfield | October 26, 2011, 11:18AM

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips defended Pat Buchanan against charges of racism by African-American civil rights group Color of Change, arguing that "the racist in this story is the group, the Color of Change."

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Tea Party Nation

Tea Party Nation: 'Anonymous' Attacked Us With Porn

Jillian Rayfield | March 15, 2011, 11:08AM

Founder of Tea Party Nation Judson Phillips

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips is claiming that the hacker collective 'Anonymous' is attacking the Tea Party Nation website by getting supporters to pose as Tea Party members and post racist pictures and porn.

'Anonymous', however, has seemingly not taken credit for the attack, nor is there much evidence the attack came from them.

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Barack Obama

Tea Party Nation Founder: Obama Wants China To Fund His Campaign Like Hamas Did In '08

Jillian Rayfield | January 19, 2011, 10:39AM

Judson Phillips, leader of Tea Party Nation.

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips thinks this week's state dinner with China has a much more sinister purpose than the White House would have us believe: "In 2008, Obama even received campaign contributions from Gaza (I.e. Hamas). So where does a corrupt, unpopular President from the party of treason go for reelection cash? China, of course."

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Tea Party Nation

Tea Party Nation Founder: Let's Get Rid Of The 'Socialist' Methodist Church

Jillian Rayfield | December 20, 2010, 12:24PM

Judson Phillips, leader of Tea Party Nation.

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips has a dream: "No more Methodist Church."

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Judson Phillips

Tea Party Nation Founder: 'A Wise Idea' To Only Let Property Owners Vote

Jillian Rayfield | December 3, 2010, 5:35PM

Judson Phillips, leader of Tea Party Nation.

Judson Phillips, the founder of the group Tea Party Nation, has defended his comments that the Founding Fathers' original plan to only allow property owners to vote "makes a lot of sense" because "property owners have a little bit more of a vested interest in the community than non-property owners."

In an email to ThinkProgress yesterday, Phillips doubled down, referring to the radio broadcast last week in which he made the comments: "During the course of our discussion, I mentioned that the Founding Fathers limited voting rights to property owners. I commented this was a wise idea."

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Tea Party Natoinal Federation

New Tea Party Federation Aims To Unite Movement -- But One Key Group Stays Away

Zachary Roth | April 9, 2010, 1:11PM

A crowd gathers at a tea party

An organizer of February's National Tea Party Convention has launched a new effort to unite the fractious Tea Party movement. But one major Tea Party faction isn't on board.

A coalition of Tea Party groups yesterday announced the formation of the National Tea Party Federation (NTFP), saying it will aim to act as a "clearinghouse" for Tea Party groups, and promote the goals of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets."

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Tea Party Nation

Tea Party Convention Backer Sues Organizer

Zachary Roth | March 31, 2010, 9:54AM

At a tea party in Philadelphia

In the latest sign of Tea Party rancor, the key backer of last month's national convention at which Sarah Palin spoke is suing the event's organizer, charging that he reneged on a deal to continue working together on Tea Party business.

Bill Hemrick, the founder of the Upper Deck baseball card company, loaned Tea Party Nation $50,000, which went towards the $100,000 speaking fee given to Palin. He says the money was loaned on the condition that he could remain involved with the conservative political action committee that TPN founder and convention organizer Judson Phillips said he was putting together. Hemrick says that Phillips backed out of the deal, and even barred Hemrick from attending Palin's speech. He also claims that Phillips defamed him by writing an email to supporters saying he was not "reputable" or "trustworthy."

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Tea Party Nation

Palin Tea Party Convention Speech To Be Broadcast Live

Zachary Roth | February 1, 2010, 3:38PM

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin

The much-maligned Tea Party group organizing the National Tea Party Convention this week has announced that portions of the controversial confab, including Sarah Palin's speech, will be broadcast live.

In a press release, Tea Party Nation (TPN) spokesman Mark Skoda writes:

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Sarah Palin

Palin Still Psyched For Tea Party Convention Despite Growing Exodus

Zachary Roth | January 29, 2010, 10:03AM

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin

It looks like Sarah Palin may be left holding the bag at a Tea Party event that almost no one else in the movement wants anything to do with.

The former Alaska governor still plans to speak at the much-maligned National Tea Party Convention next month in Nashville. "You betcha I'm going to be there," she told Fox News last night.

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Tea Parties

Blackburn Backs Out Of Controversial Tea Party Convention, Bachmann May Follow

Zachary Roth | January 28, 2010, 11:25AM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)

The much-maligned National Tea Party Convention may be unraveling, as one of its scheduled GOP speakers backs out, and another mulls doing likewise.

The convention, planned for next month in Nashville, grabbed headlines by announcing that Sarah Palin and Republican Congresswomen Michele Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn would speak.

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Tea Parties

Tea Partier: 'Boycott The National Tea Party Convention'

Zachary Roth | January 18, 2010, 2:57PM

National Tea Party Convention organizer Judson Phillips

Yet another Tea Partier is sounding the alarm about the upcoming National Tea Party Convention and questioning the motives of its organizer.

Shane Brooks worked closely with convention organizer Judson Phillips and his Tea Party Nation (TPN) group, until a falling out last month in part over what Brooks saw as TPN's overly close relationship with the GOP, which Brooks distrusts. Now, Brooks, based in Texas, has posted a YouTube video urging fellow activists to "boycott the National Tea Party Convention," and declaring, "we will not allow Tea Party Nation or any group to achieve national leadership of this historic grassroots revolution by the people!"

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Tea Parties

Hands Off! The Political Insiders Accused Of Hijacking The Tea Party Movement

Zachary Roth | January 18, 2010, 12:55PM

Tea party in Hartford, Connecticut in 2009

As the Tea Party movement approaches its one-year anniversary, grassroots activists increasingly are finding themselves fighting off what they see as cynical bids by unscrupulous sophisticates to co-opt the movement for their own ends.

These new players on the Tea Party scene are lawyers, political consultants, business-people, and even Republican politicians. They're not working together for the most part, and the details of their efforts differ. But all have taken steps lately that have been denounced -- often by Tea Party activists -- as efforts to benefit personally from a movement that prides itself on its independence and incorruptability.

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Tea Party Nation

Tea Party Convention Organizer Used 'Our Passion For The Movement To Build His Start-Up'

Zachary Roth | January 13, 2010, 11:22AM

National Tea Party Convention organizer Judson Phillips

The organizer of the National Tea Party Convention, at which Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann will speak next month, cynically took advantage of conservative activists' willingness to work on behalf of the Tea Party cause in his bid to launch a money-making enterprise, according to one fellow Tea Partier.

Kevin Smith told TPMmuckraker that Judson Phillips, the Nashville defense lawyer behind the upcoming National Tea Party Convention, abruptly turned Tea Party Nation into a for-profit corporation last year, shocking fellow activists who had discussed setting up the fledgling group as a non-profit.

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Tea Parties

Key Sponsor Pulls Out Of Tea Party Convention

Zachary Roth | January 13, 2010, 10:01AM

Tea party in Washington, D.C.

One of the key co-sponsors of the National Tea Party Convention has pulled out of the event, citing concerns over the financial arrangements of Tea Party Nation, the group organizing the confab.

Eric Odom of American Liberty Alliance is seen by many as one of the founders of the Tea Party movement. His group had been listed as a "gold" co-sponsor of the convention, and in an interview Friday with TPMmuckraker, Odom sounded bullish about it. But today he writes that his group "will sit out" the event:

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Tea Party Express

'The Tea Party Movement Is About To Be Hijacked': Activists Slam Plan For Convention

Zachary Roth | January 11, 2010, 9:00AM

In the latest sign of rancor in Tea Party circles, a convention billed as an effort to bring together conservative activists from across the country is being attacked by some leading Tea Partiers as inauthentic, too tied to the GOP, and -- at $549 per head -- too expensive for the working Americans the movement aspires to represent.

The National Tea Party Convention, scheduled for early February in Nashville, grabbed headlines after announcing that Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann would appear as speakers, Palin as the keynote. According to a message on the convention's website, the event "is aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement leaders together from around the nation." But organizers are a long way from unifying the notoriously fractious movement.

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