The Spokane Examiner

By Joe Newby

The baseless smears against the Tea Party continues.

In an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan, actor Morgan Freeman falsely claims the Tea Party is racist.

Politico reports:

During an interview that airs Friday, CNN’s Piers Morgan asked the actor, "Has Obama helped the process of eradicating racism or has it, in a strange way, made it worse?”

“Made it worse. Made it worse,” the actor replied.

“The tea partiers who are controlling the Republican party...their stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term. What underlines that? Screw the country, we're going to do whatever we can to get this black man out of here," Freeman added.

Translation:  Opposition to Obama has nothing to do with failed socialist policies that have driven America to the brink of economic ruin, seen the country's credit rating downgraded and given the nation an unemployment rate nearly twice that of Mexico - it has to do with the color of the man's skin.

Apparently, in Freeman's view, if you disagree with Obama, you have to be a racist.

Politico adds:

On the strength of the tea party, he said: “It just shows the weak, dark, underside of America. We’re supposed to be better than that. We really are.”

According to Freeman, the rise of the Tea Party proves hate still exists in America. 

"Hate," of course, being redefined as "disagreeing with liberals, particularly President Obama."

Naturally, a gay rights advocate saying he wishes all Republicans were dead is not viewed as 'hate' in the liberal lexicon.

Nor, apparently, is tweeting death wishes against Republicans.

But calling Tea Party activists racist is easy and requires no thought on the part of the person making the smear.

What makes this episode even sadder is that Freeman, who has starred in movies like "Glory," and "The Shawshank Redemption," is actually a very good actor.

The Huffington Post notes the actor "endorsed Obama during his run for the presidency, but declined to campaign with him, saying that he was an actor, not a politician."  Perhaps he should stick with what he does best.

Maybe he should follow the advice of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and actually meet some Tea Party members before he continues to smear millions of Americans.

More From Joe Newby at The Examiner