Kyl: Tea Party is ‘incredible movement’

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) weighed in on the tension between the establishment GOP and the Tea Party movement Friday, calling on the GOP be “in synch” with and not to “try to control” the Tea Party.

“It is an incredible movement. It is an energy that we haven’t seen in a
long time,” he told NPR’s All Things Considered.

“It’s not for the Republican Party to somehow try to control it. The
Republican Party should be in synch with the Tea Party in the sense that
it is a movement that embodies the feelings of millions of Americans,” he added later. 

Kyl’s comments come in the aftermath of several Tea Party upsets in Tuesday’s GOP primaries. Wins like Christine O’Donnell’s in Delaware’s GOP Senate primary prompted spats between those who supported conservative insurgent candidates — notably Sen. Jim DeMint (R-N.C.), who is a vocal proponent of the Tea Party — and more veteran establishment Republicans who tended to back centrists.

Asked to comment on O’Donnell’s win, Kyl allowed that she faces tough odds in the general.

“In that particular race, the nominee I think will have a more difficult time winning than [Rep.] Mike Castle would have had,” he said of O’Donnell’s opponent, a centrist and favorite of the establishment GOP.