The Oakland riot police beg to differ.

(Politico) — In his chat with Jay Leno on Tuesday, President Obama was asked (not for the first time) about the “Occupy Wall Street” protests. While he said again that the movement is based in “frustration,” he told Leno that it’s similar to the tea party.

“Look, people are frustrated, and that frustration expresses itself in a lot of different ways. It expressed itself in the tea party. It’s expressing itself in Occupy Wall Street,” Obama said. “Everybody needs to understand that the American people feel that no one is looking out for them right now.”

It’s not monumental that Obama made the comparison with the tea party, but it reflects a small progression since he was asked about the protests at the beginning of the month. At an Oct. 6 press conference, he was asked specifically if Occupy Wall Street could be like the tea party; Obama didn’t answer. In an interview on Oct. 18, though, Obama said that the demonstrations are “not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the tea party.”