It was the rant heard ’round the world: “We’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July,” Rick Santelli said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” five years ago today, February 19, 2009. “All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I’m gonna start organizing it.”
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Five years later, Congress has more than 50 members affiliated with the Tea Party. In a 2010 interview with TVNewser, Santelli called the rant “the best five minutes of my life.”