A group of Tea Party-affiliated protesters disrupted a book signing by former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (D), calling the former Republican a “commie whore” and shouting that he “looks like an AIDS victim.” According to conservative Florida website Shark-Tank.com, the protesters gathered outside a Ft. Lauderdale Barnes and Noble store were from the Ft. Lauderdale chapter of the Tea Party Republicans.

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Crist was at the store signing copies of his book The Party’s Over, How the Extreme Right Hijacked the GOP and I Became a Democrat. The group of protesters gathered outside carried signs and shouted at the former governor as he tried to leave the store.

A Miami Sun-Sentinel‘s political reporter — who tweets under the name @BrowardPolitics — wrote on Twitter, “On his way out, one of the Republican protestors called @CharlieCrist a ‘commie whore.’ And that was the most printable comment.”

Shark-Tank.com reported that the protester who shouted that Crist looked “like an AIDS victim” repeated the remark three times as the governor walked to his car after the event.

Actress and singer Bette Midler noted the incident and tweeted a message alluding to the Tea Party’s history of posing as a grass roots movement while actually receiving support from corporations and wealthy oligarchs like billionaires Charles and David Koch.

“Yesterday, at book signing in Fort Lauderdale, @TeaPartiers shouted ‘commie whore’ at @CharlieCrist and other insults. Wonder who paid ’em?” she wrote.