Erickson's census 'shotgun' threat

CNN contributor and prominent Republican blogger Erick Erickson is threatening to pull out a "shotgun" to scare away census workers.

Erickson — the founder of the conservative blog RedState — said on his Macon, Ga.-area radio show Thursday that if a census worker carrying a longer American Community Survey form came by his house, he would "pull out my wife's shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door."


"They're not going on my property. They can't do that. They don't have the legal right, and yet they're trying," Erickson said, in a recording by the liberal media watchdog Media Matters. "The servants are becoming the masters. We are working for the government. We are becoming enslaved by the government."

On his blog, RedState, Erickson wrote Friday that he was being "misconstrued."

"ACS Surveyors are getting belligerent," he wrote, "and have showed up on people's doorsteps to harass them and threaten jail. I said if some ACS person showed up on my doorstep to try to arrest me for not wanting to tell the government how often I flush my toilet, I'd get out my wife's shotgun and get them off my property. Naturally the left is out today saying I was on the air advocating killing census workers."

Despite having a history of inflammatory rhetoric — he once called retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter a "goat f—ing child molester" — Erickson was touted by CNN as an "agenda-setter" who is "in touch with the very people" the network hopes to reach when they signed him to provide commentary in March.

Asked about his controversial past statements Sunday on CNN's "Reliable Sources," Erickson said that he has had to "grow up over time."

"I've definitely had to grow up and realize I am someone now on a national stage and a platform, and what I say and write affects not just me and my family, but others," he said.

But on Thursday, Erickson demonstrated much of the same rhetorical flare with his anti-census rant that prompted liberal groups to blast CNN for hiring the conservative firebrand.

"The questionnaire asks how many people live with you, what their relationship is to you and their names, ages, genders and race. Now that's actually part of the census form," he said. "But the ACS delves more into that and wants to know where you work, what time you leave for work, how you get to work, how long it takes you to get to work, how many people travel with you. It's like a questionnaire a stalker might send you."

"Scammers could be doing this," he suggested.

"The Congress has empowered the Commerce Department to ask questions. The Commerce Department has decided that if you do not answer questions, it's going to find you, have you arrested and throw you in jail," he added. "This is crazy. What gives the Commerce Department the right to ask me how often I flush my toilet? Or about going to work? I'm not filling out this form."

Other conservatives — notably Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) — have been making a strong anti-census push, but it does not seem to be sticking.

According to a CNN/Opinion Research poll released Thursday, 83 percent of Americans do not think filling out the census is an invasion of privacy.