Politics

Infiltrator trying to pass as Rand Paul fan wrote column bashing Tea Party

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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There’s more evidence that the dubious “supporter” of U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul who spouted racist comments at a Kentucky political event last weekend was a fake trying to inflict damage upon the Republican nominee’s campaign.

According to Kentucky columnist Brandon Kiser, Tyler Collins wrote a column in the Crittenden County newspaper in June bashing Tea Party activists.

Though Collins took to Kentucky’s Fancy Farms event with a political sign of bilingual TV star Dora the Explorer last weekend (“she’s illegal and she’s corrupting our children,” Collins told WHAS11 TV), Collins criticized Tea Party activists in a June column for displaying distasteful signs at political events.

“As Americans we should have respect for the office, and cropping pictures to make the president look like Hitler is doing our country a disservice,” he wrote.

Collins also cited the Bible for his disapproval of the Tea Party movement and blamed free-market principles for the Great Depression.

The WHAS11 TV reporter who first interviewed Collins was noticeably skeptical at the time that Collins was a true Rand Paul supporter. Then, Dave Weigel at Slate posted a video after the event that showed Collins walking with supporters of Democratic nominee, Jack Conway.

Collins, who could not immediately be reached for comment, was identified in the story as a political science major at Murray State University.

Watch the WHAS11 report: