Howard Fineman Excoriates Romney for Playing to Xenophobic and 'Nativist Base' of Tea Party

Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman, now at the Huffington Post, appeared on the July 23 Hardball where he smeared the Republican Party as “xenophobic” and “nativist” while decrying Mitt Romney for not standing up to that:

“He is playing to -- and has from the beginning of the campaign -- played to the kind of nativist base of the Tea Party. And by nativist, I mean people who are, in essence, afraid of the world....The Republican Party is going to cripple itself beyond recognition if they don’t quit being xenophobes.”