PITTSBURGH (NEWSRADIO 1020 NEWS) -- Tea Party "terrorists?"  Democratic Congressman Mike Doyle told KDKA's Adam Kirk Tuesday morning that he did, in fact, refer to the conservative group of Republicans as terrorists during a closed door meeting Monday with Vice President Joe Biden. 

Rep. Doyle said he was expressing his frustration "that we were in this situation, that we were even, you know, negotiating this way," said Doyle. "It's like you're negotiating with a terrorist, or a hostage taker."

Had he chosen another word, like "hostage taker," Doyle said the story would not have grown out of control, to the point where Vice President Joe Biden responded to the comment last night on CBS News.  Biden denied ever having said those words, or agreeing with the phraseology.

KDKA's Adam Kirk reports:

Doyle said he never meant to include the everyday Tea Party members in the "terrorist" class.  "It strikes me as so odd that in a closed door meeting of the Democratic Caucus, somebody takes a snippet of what gets said, and then it somehow gets blown out of proportion that we were saying something to defame the thousands or however many people that align themselves with the Tea Party in the United States," said Doyle.  "That's not what happened at all."

However, the founder of the Pittsburgh Tea Party, Patricia Weaver, took the comments seriously.  "Pittsburghers, and those who've elected Mr. Doyle, need to take a long hard look" at these comments," said Weaver.  She called them inappropriate, and not fitting for the office which the Congressman holds.

KDKA's Larry Richert & John Shumway talk to Congressman Doyle:

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