Tucson Tea Party Chair Warned to 'Stay Away From Public Places

Though he says he has been "very impressed" with the way President Obama has steered the nation through the aftermath of last Saturday's shooting, Tucson tea party leader Trent Humphries was not in attendance for Obama's remarks at Wednesday evening's memorial rally.

Humphries has been instructed by police to "stay away from public places" after he and his family received numerous threats from people who seem to hold him and his organization responsible for Jared Lee Loughner's shooting rampage.

"We got a not-so-veiled threat," Humphries told TPM. "The Sheriff's deputies told me to stay away from public places."

"We had people say, 'too bad it wasn't your family that was killed,'" Humphries explained. "'The blood of that little girl on your hands.'"

But it was one call in particular that had Humphries afraid for his family's safety Wednesday. "It was something like 'we hate you and we're going to stand against you and we're going to use our First and Second Amendment rights to stop you,'" he said.

Humphries said this week's threats are not the only ones he's received since founding the Tucson tea party in 2009. During the 2010 midterm election campaign season, his family was force to switch to an unlisted phone number.

One of Saturday's victims was Humphries' neighbor.

And though he believes most threats wouldn't ultimately be carried out, "I have a wife and kids," he said, agreeing with law enforcement authorities that the safest place for his family right now would be out of public sight.

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The UK's Guardian interviewed Humphries shortly after last Saturday's shooting to ask him what role (if any) he felt the tea party played in the shooting. Here's what he had to say: