Tea Party activist Larry Klayman cited creative license on Friday in defending his recent Islamophobic accusations against President Barack Obama to MSNBC host Martin Bashir after Bashir pressed him for proof that Obama was “a foreign-born Muslim who has hoodwinked the American people.”

“Have you observed him performing the various practices of Islam?” Bashir asked pointedly. “Has he arranged for the White House to be arranged so that it faces Mecca? Have you seen him take the hajj? What is your evidence for making those kinds of public statements?”

ADVERTISEMENT

“As a journalist and as a writer, Martin, you know that those references were metaphoric,” Klayman answered.

“They were metaphoric?” Bashir shot back, as network contributor James Peterson could be heard laughing in the background.

“Let me finish,” Klayman insisted. “But they ring true, because this president has done everything he can to harm Israel, to harm American interests in the Middle East.”

Bashir then asked if Klayman meant his demand that Obama “put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up” as a way to “titilate Sarah Palin.”

“Just like you do,” Klayman quipped in response.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I’ve never lied about the president,” Bashir retorted.

Klayman also hedged at first when Bashir asked him whether he considered Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) a “whore,” playing off of Klayman’s new book accusing lawmakers of selling the country out for their own political benefit.

“That was in regard to people in Washington [D.C.] generally,” Klayman began to answer, before being cut off by Bashir.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I just wondered if I could take your very words, though, and ask you which of those two — Mr. Cruz or Mr. McConnell — is, in your opinion, a ‘whore,'” Bashir asked again.

“In terms of how I would characterize them, Mitch McConnell has sold out the American people, so I would characterize him in that group” Klayman responded. “He does not represent the interests of the conservative movement, the libertarian movement, or for that matter, any other movement.”

ADVERTISEMENT

However, Peterson told Bashir that, contrary to speculation by FreedomWorks CEO Matt Kibbe, Cruz was not likely to leave the Republican party, though Peterson did support the idea of three or four distinct parties in the U.S. political arena.

“He wants to run for president,” Peterson said of Cruz. “I think some of the things that he’s been doing recently are clear indicators of that.”

However, Klayman supported Cruz for “taking a position,” even though he lost.

ADVERTISEMENT

“He’s not at the level of McConnell,” Klayman told the panelists. “I don’t believe he’s a whore. Let’s see how he evolves over time. I don’t think we can judge him yet.”

“I wouldn’t use that kind of terminology,” Peterson chided in response.

Watch the interview, as aired Friday on MSNBC, below.