Newsmax.com
30 Mar 2010
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he believes the tea party is built around a “core group” of people who question whether he is a U.S. citizen and believe he is a socialist.
But beyond that, Obama tells NBC he recognizes the movement involves “folks who have legitimate concerns” about the national debt and whether the government is taking on too many difficult issues simultaneously.
During an interview broadcast Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show, Obama said he feels “there’s still going to be a group at their core that question my legitimacy.” But he said he didn’t want to paint tea party activists “in broad brushes” and he hopes to win over members who have “mainstream, legitimate concerns.”
Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer that “there’s some folks who just weren’t sure whether I was born in the United States, whether I was a socialist, right?
“There is a broader circle around that core group, of people who are legitimately concerned about the deficit, who are legitimately concerned that the federal government may be taking on too much.”
Obama said he hopes to allay these fears as time moves on.
And those core tea partyers? “That group we’re probably not going to convince,” Obama said.
The article, with video, continues at Newsmax.com
