"They stood to get quite a bit of a return on their investment in the 2010 elections wherein, through their organization, Americans for Prosperity, they financed what is called the Tea Party, which is supposed to be a grassroots group but, actually, it is a corporate-driven animal, and the financing for that animal comes from the Koch brothers and their Americans for Prosperity organization," Johnson said.
Americans for Prosperity's Georgia office said Johnson showed a "stunning level of ignorance" about the Tea Party, and said he made "demonstrably false accusations" about the movement. Virginia Galloway, state director for the group in Georgia, said deficit spending is what caused the Tea Party to evolve, not corporate money.
"After years of the Tea Party and groups like Americans for Prosperity advocating for sound fiscal policies and fighting government waste, most Americans agree with our core message: that federal government spending is out of control," she said. "Yet Rep. Johnson still doesn't get it. The Democrats should be embarrassed to allow Rep. Johnson to ramble on and make ignorant statements about what has been one of the most effective and unifying movements in American politics."
She added that Johnson is either "willfully unaware or ignoring the 45,000+ patriotic members of Americans for Prosperity in the state of Georgia who resent being called 'corporate animals' by a politician in Washington, D.C."
