President Obama's former green czar, Van Jones, described the Tea Party as a group of "so-called patriots" who are trying to destroy America last weekend at a campaign rally on behalf of the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in the Wisconsin recall election.

"At this point in this struggle, it's the so-called patriots who are the ones who are smashing down every American institution," Jones said last weekend in Milwaukee. "It's the so-called patriots, the ones who come out here with their Tea Party and the flags and call themselves patriots -- they're the ones that are smashing down our unions, smashing down public education, smashing down every American institution that we built, and our parents built, and our grandparents built to make this country great."

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Jones added that the Tea Party is trying to "take a wrecking ball -- and paint it red, white, and blue -- and smash down all the things our parents did for us."

He called for higher taxes on the wealthy to fund state programs, saying that it is "absurd" to believe that the United States or Wisconsin has a fiscal crisis. "You've got some rich folks in Wisconsin so rich, the Pharaohs are goin, 'Damn! Yall came up!'" Jones said.

H/T Republican Party Animals