Earlier today, FBI agents dropped in on the home of St. Louis conservative Scott Boston over remarks he made about Sen. Claire McCaskill at a Tea Party Express rally in Springfield. Fortunately, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was able to break the news to him, as the information was first brought to the paper before Boston himself knew. 

While speaking at a Springfield event for the Tea Party Express, Boston said of McCaskill, as quoted by the Post-Dispatch: “We have to get Claire McCaskill out. We have to kill the Claire Bear ladies and gentlemen.”

Boston said in a telephone interview that he was explicitly describing how McCaskill is two people: she’s an aggressive progressive in Washington, D.C. and a friendly moderate back in Missouri. 

“She’s two different people,” said Boston. “But I was shocked that the remark was misconstrued in such a way to suggest that I was talking of harming her.”

The FBI visited Boston’s house today and questioned him, even asking him whether he owned any firearms and if so, how many. They also asked for the address of his parents, before finally giving him the all-clear. 

I spoke with Amy Kremer, the spokeswoman for the Tea Party Express, who stated:

Scott basically said we have to defeat Claire McCaskill, that’s what this is all about. For him to go up there and talk about defeating McCaskill and say “kill the Claire Bear,” to kill the image she’s projecting, it was a figure of speech. Life has not been so grand under Claire McCaskill, and Missourians are seeing it. They don’t want a politician who pretends that it’s all a fairy tale, it’s all OK when she’s here. It’s not hunky dory, it’s not Claire Bear land. She’s not all that she’s cracked up to be.

I also reached out to Jake Wagman of the Post-Dispatch, as I was curious how he got news of this so fast–even before Boston himself. 

“I had heard about the potential threat earlier today. When I inquired about it with the state Democratic Party,  they gave me the audio,” said Wagman. 

I asked Wagman who told him of the “potential threat” and he declined to say. 

U.S. Senate candidate Sarah Steelman issued her own statement:

McCaskill suggests “We should take up pitch forks if Congress doesn’t raise taxes,” the liberal media applauds it. This is a typical double standard and why we conservatives are at war with the liberal establishment. I may disagree with the words Mr. Boston chose in his statement, but  I understand his frustration and I emphatically support his right to express his views.

This isn’t the first time that a Missouri Democrat has attempted to take on the grassroots over allegations of offensive language; in 2010 Russ Carnahan claimed that grassroots activists trespassed on his yard and left a coffin, which was quickly debunked by local media.

It’s a questionable response from the Senator, who once called the criminal Occupy movement “patriotic.”

While I didn’t hear Boston’s quote, he told me what his remarks were, as did Kremer, and others. I do wish that Democrats would pay as much attention to the speech from their own side as they do the speech of conservatives.

*UPDATE: I asked Wagman if he has audio of Boston’s remarks so I can hear them myself and if he does, if he plans on releasing it. I’d like to hear for myself what Boston said. 

*UPDATE #2: Wagman replied that he’s unsure whether or not he’s going to release the audio.  “I do have audio of the remarks. “I had not decided yet whether to release it,” writes Wagman, “That doesn’t mean I won’t, just that I wanted to think about more before I did.”

It’s my hope that he does; considering the allegations made against Boston and the FBI visit, I think the story deserves the actual remarks, not just the synopsis of events from a political candidate who will oppose one of the candidates who were at the event in the fall.