In its story about a feud at FreedomWorks, the Washington Post reported this week that former GOP Rep. Dick Armey, then the chair of the Tea Party organization, brought a gun-wielding “assistant” to the offices of FreedomWorks for a contentious meeting on Sept. 4. The paper said Armey his wife, Susan, and a man with a handgun holstered at his waist walked into the group's Capitol Hill offices aiming to “seize control of the group and expel Armey's enemies.” Mother Jones identified the gun-carrying man as a former Capitol Hill police officer named Beau Singleton, who used to be part of Armey’s congressional security detail.
Singleton escorted FreedomWorks' top two employees off the premises, while Armey suspended several others who broke down in sobs at the news. This sort of drama does not happen often in Washington, Mother Jones noted. Singleton, Armey says, is authorized to carry a gun, but he does so in a back holster that cannot be seen by an onlooker. “I was unaware he had a gun [at the meeting],” Armey maintains. “He kept it under his coat in the back….But the news looks like Armey came in there like John Dillinger, all guns a-blazing. That was false.” Armey says he was concerned about a FreedomWorks official losing his temper at this meeting and suggested that Singleton join him in the trip to the group’s office.