The founder of a movement to increase racial diversity within the Republican Party told a crowd of tea party supporters on Sunday that they weren’t racists because “the Democratic Party is the party of the KKK.”

Speaking at the first ever South Carolina Tea Party Convention, Raging Elephants leader Apostle Claver explained that Republicans would need to attract black and Latino voters if they intended to win elections in the future.

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“Look around,” Claver told the mostly-white crowd. “Y’all hear me? Turn around and take a look. Where’s our black brothers and sisters? Where’s our Hispanic and Latino brothers and sisters? Our Asian brothers and sisters?”

“Now here’s the good news,” he continued. “Them folks, them blacks and Hispanics, they’re just as conservative as you are. … But the point is, we’re their friends, not the Democrats.”

“And we need to have the courage to go into their neighborhoods and tell them the truth about the party of Jim Crow, the party of the KKK, the party of Dred Scott, the party of segregation. The Democrats are the ones who are the racists, not you! Through their policies, their liberal policies, it’s the Democratic Party that has done damage to the black community; decimated their family; miseducated their children; devoured, destroyed their economic base.”

Claver added: “They want to say your are the racist. No. No. If anybody is a racist, it’s [Texas Congresswoman] Shiela Jackson Lee! If anybody is a racist, it’s [Democratic Congressman] John Conyers! If anybody is a racist, it’s [South Carolina Congressman] James Clyburn! If anybody is a racist, it’s Jesse ‘castration’ Jackson! If anybody is a racist, it’s Al ‘shakedown’ Sharpton! They’re the racists! We’re their friends!”

Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Jan. 15, 2012.

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