Morgan Freeman Under Fire For Calling Tea Party Racist

Uh oh.

Morgan Freeman- best known as the voice of pretty much everyone important ever in every film in the past decade or two- is out promoting his newest film, the Ashley Judd and Harry Connick, Jr. sap-fest, Dolphin Tale. The film seems to center around a dolphin that lost its fin, or something- normally a fatal condition for a dolphin, apparently- and the efforts of a little boy to replace the creature’s fin. Morgan Freeman plays the crotchety but fair old doctor who initially balks at the suggestions, but ends up replacing the fin and everything goes better than expected.

The film is probably not attracting film-goers with edgy tastes, and Freeman has gone and probably done what every studio dreads when a big star is out promoting a film- he’s alienated a lot of the audience. Freeman was promoting the film on CNN’s Piers Morgan when the conversation turned to the political climate. And the gravelly-voiced actor didn’t mince words when describing the Tea Party’s agenda:

“[The Tea Party’s] stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term term. What’s, what does that, what underlines that? Screw the country. We’re going to do whatever we do to get this black man, we can, we’re going to do whatever we can to get this black man outta here.”

While many Americans were probably shouting, “go Morgan!” from their couches, several have taken offense to Freeman’s commentary. One notable liberal dissenter was Alec Baldwin, who said the Tea Party took issue with Obama’s character and policies, not his race. (Respectfully, Mr. Baldwin, have you seen some of their signs?)

Freeman has yet to respond to the backlash. Do you find his assessment on point, or was Freeman himself reflecting racial bias in his statement?