SALON

Wednesday, Feb 6, 2013 4:14 PM UTC

Karl Rove: We don’t want to fight the Tea Party

Rove defends his Super PAC, but Tea Partyers see things differently VIDEO

By

Topics: Video, Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, American Crossroads, Karl Rove, Joe Walsh,

Karl Rove: We don't want to fight the Tea Party (Credit: Fox News)

Karl Rove argued on Tuesday that his Super PAC is not really trying to start a war with the Tea Party, and that it’s just a matter of trying to find stronger candidates than Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock.

“This is not Tea Party versus the establishment,” Rove said on Fox News. “I don’t want a fight.”

“Some people think the best we can do is Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock. They’re wrong. We need to do better if we hope to take over the United States Senate. We need to get better conservative candidates and win,” he continued.

Watch:

Rove was addressing an outcry by tea partiers and far-right conservatives over an initiative by his Super PAC, American Crossroads, to use big money GOP donors to fund establishment candidates in 2014. The plan is to prevent unelectable far-right candidates, often backed by tea partiers, from winning primaries.

Leaders of various tea party groups, such as Freedomworks, Club For Growth and the Tea Party Patriots, have all decried the new effort, referring to it as everything from “Orwellian” to less effective than a Ponzi scheme. Former Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., who was backed by the tea party, even announced Tuesday that he will be forming his own Super PAC “to support freedom-loving conservative alternatives to” Rove.

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com. More Jillian Rayfield.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 9 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations