'Killing Lincoln' Producer: John Wilkes Booth 'Could Be a Poster Child for the Tea Party'

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly might dub Erik Jendresen a “pinhead” for his comments about the Tea Party – assuming the host wants to mock the man bringing O’Reilly’s “Killing Lincoln” book to television.

Erik Jendresen, the writer and executive producer behind the upcoming NatGeo production, compared Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth to the conservative grass roots movement during a press gathering to promote the project.

Jendresen stressed that Booth wasn’t a madman, but held views that were fairly common at the time of the assassination.

“This is not the act of somebody who can be easily dismissed as a psychopath so that it’s easy to understand: ‘Oh, well, he was crazy.’ No. It’s more disturbing to find out who Booth was,” Jendresen said. “This is a man who believed what still probably 20 percent of this country still believes. He could be a poster child for the Tea Party.”

The media, as well as Hollywood liberals, continue to paint Tea Party members as both violent and racist without proof. Meanwhile, the Occupy Wall Street movement, embraced by many celebrities, has a lengthy rap sheet of violence, including this week’s news that two OWS supporters were arrested for possessing a cache of bombs in their home.

Jendresen’s comments represent a major PR blunder for a project that might have attracted a hearty conservative audience.