Dem seeks House seat - and war with Tea Party, Fox News

Virginia Democrat seeking the House seat held by Rep. Eric Cantor promises war with Tea Party, Fox News, NRA and 'other trash,' but is he just full of rhetoric and hot air?

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," April 8, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: A congressional candidate'S sinister, maybe with desperate, campaign promise setting off an out -- all-out -- Twitter war. Virginia democrat, Mike Dickinson, tweeting if elected, I promise war on the Tea Party, Fox News, NRA, and other trash. Now, the tweet sparking outrage on Twitter and now, Dickinson's Twitter account was temporarily suspended, but now it has been reinstated, we're told.

So, what does tea party have to say? Richmond Tea Party Executive Director Larry Nordvig joins us. And I should say, Larry, that we had nothing to do with the fact that his Twitter account was suspended. As far as I'm concerned, bring it on, his term is "war" on Fox News. But, anyway, your thoughts? He's going to war on you, apparently.

LARRY NORDVIG, RICHMOND TEA PARTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: You know, thanks for having me back right away, Greta. And it's funny you just said that because my first gut reaction to this, when I saw these tweets was bring it. If you want a war against the tea party, I'm not sure he knows what he is asking for. Down here in Central Virginia, we've got a pretty large and strong army of political activists that would probably enjoy the contest. I think we can beat him on a political battlefield with one hand tied behind our back. But this guy is kind of a nobody down here. Nobody has ever heard of him. I don't think he's a real threat.

But to me, it brought up two bigger issues. And that was one, why does a congressional candidate feel he can talk this way during a campaign and, two, why the tea party again? We're targeted all the time. Why is that? I think those are the issues we should talk about.

VAN SUSTEREN: You know, I still can't figure out why the tea party, why you were so demonized. You want smaller government and less spending. And, you know, you mean, you're not throwing bombs at the Capitol. You are not -- I mean, you're not out there doing horrible rotten violent things. It's your ideology is one of smaller government. Why does that apparently send some people in a full scale panic like they have to declare war on you?

NORDVIG: Well, I think I have the answer to that. And you're right in your assessment. We are ordinary Americans and, you know, basically we do want a manageable-sized government. We want people to not spend more than they take in. We want taxes reasonable. We want the rights restored -- where restorative power the tea party.

But, I think what that does is it threatens those in power, and I'm talking about those political elites. They're in both parties. You know, we catch flack from both sides, Nancy Pelosi calls us arsonists. Harry Reid calls us anarchist. They talked about us being bomb-throwing terrorist on the floor, but also Mitch McConnell, says that we were bullies and deserve a punch in the nose, and that he wants to crush tea party everywhere.

And why is that? It's because we threaten their power because we are doing what Thomas Jefferson advised when you have government overreach and that is bind them down with the shackles of the constitution. And that's why they don't like us. We are a threat to them.

VAN SUSTEREN: You know, I'm really curious, of in fact, he's gonna be on our show, Mike Dickinson, I think on Thursday, because I'm really curious like, what in the world? I'm thinking if I were running for congress, you know, the thing I would hope to do is to sell my ideas and try to explain why I could do it better -- my ideology. I wouldn't get into the sort of food fight or, you know, I mean it's just bizarre. I mean, that this is where it is now come to, is that you enter the race and the first thing do you is you throw a couple of fists round.

I guess they learned it from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, because he goes to the senate floor and he is in a food fight everyday. He doesn't talk about, you know, the direction and well, you know, as ideas how to get, you know, people working. And the republican party, they're guilty of a lot of that, too, but it's just astounding to me.

NORDVIG: Well, on the nose. I think, you know, for one thing, you're just talking with Sean Hannity in the previous segment about parents affecting their children, and modelling behavior. I think that's why this candidate feels he can talk that way is because he looks up on Capitol Hill and thought things, well, I guess that's the way people behave nowadays in congress, it shouldn't be that way of course, and we need to get better at that.

But the reason they're mud slaying and call names is because that can't compete in the arena of ideas. And I think, that's where the tea party has the edge. We've got good ideas. Let's reduce the debt. Let's get rid of the debt. Let's not spend more than we take in. Let's get rid of Obamacare, it doesn't work, it's a disaster. And things like blanket amnesty -- you now, they wanna do this. Grant citizenship to millions of people without any kind of security and advance for borders, et cetera. These are all bad ideas. So, they resort to name calling, instead.

VAN SUSTEREN: Larry, thank you. And I hope you watch on Thursday.

NORDVIG: You're welcome and we'll keep you up-to-date with the war down here.

VAN SUSTEREN: Great. Thanks.