Here's what the Koch brothers said last summer about their involvement in the Tea Party movement:
Koch denies being directly involved with the tea party—“I’ve never been to a tea-party event. No one representing the tea party has ever even approached me.” … “The radical press is coming after me and Charles,” he said. “They’re using us as whipping boys.”
Then this video came out:
Including this quote:
“Five years ago my brother Charles and I provided the funds to start the Americans for Prosperity,” Koch says, “and its beyond my wildest dreams how AFP has grown into this enormous organization of hundreds of thousands of Americans from all walks of life standing up and fighting for the economic freedoms that have made our nation the most prosperous society in history.”
Now the line is changing:
Facing a new round of scrutiny, Koch Industries is refining its position that it has not directly funded the tea party movement, saying that “until recently” the energy giant “had never been approached by a tea party group for funding.” ...
Rich Fink, executive vice president of Koch Industries, released a statement reading, “We have not provided funding to the tea party organizations which are being organized throughout the country and, until recently, we had never been approached by a tea party group for funding. We have publicly supported Americans for Prosperity Foundation since 1984 and Americans for Prosperity since 2004. We have never considered these institutions to be tea party organizations. Whether or not they are considered to be tea party organizations will not affect our support of them. We believe the tea party movement is a response to the growing frustration of many Americans to government overspending. We share these concerns and encourage citizens to express their opinions in a respectful and civil manner.”