Sen. Tommy Tuberville keeps defending white nationalists

Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville told CNN on Monday that he does not believe white nationalists are all racists and that they should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military.

After Tuberville said that the military should welcome conservatives and Democrats, “anyone who wants to be in the military,” host Kaitlan Collins asked if he agreed that white nationalists should not be serving in the U.S. military. Tuberville answered, “If people think that a white nationalist is a racist, I agree with that.”

“A white nationalist is someone who believes that the white race is superior to other races,” Collins explained.

“Well, that’s some people’s opinion,” Tuberville said. “My opinion of a white nationalist, if somebody wants to call them white nationalist, to me is an American, it’s an American. Now if that white nationalist is a racist, I’m totally against anything that they want to do. Because I am 110% against racism.”

He then criticized identity politics and warned, “Democrats ought to be ashamed for how they’re doing this because it’s dividing this country and it’s making this country weaker every day. … So if you’re gonna do away with most white people in this country out of the military, we got huge problems.”

In May, Tuberville appeared on NPR radio station WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama, and criticized efforts to address growing white nationalist extremism in the military: “We are losing in the military so fast our readiness in terms of recruitment. And why? I’ll tell you why, because the Democrats are attacking our military, saying we need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists, people that don’t believe in our agenda, as Joe Biden’s agenda.”

The Defense Department began efforts to screen out extremists in the armed services under Republican President Donald Trump.

Asked directly if white nationalists should be allowed to serve, Tuberville answered, “Well, they call them that. I call them Americans.”

After criticism over his comments, Tuberville told reporters: “There’s a lot of good people who are Trump supporters in the military. But for some reason my Democrat colleagues want to portray everybody who’s a Trump supporter as a white nationalist. That is not true.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Tuberville’s latest comments on Tuesday, saying on the Senate floor: “The senator from Alabama is wrong, wrong, wrong. The definition of white nationalism is not a matter of opinion. … His words have power and carry weight with the fringe of his constituency, just the fringe, but if that fringe listens to him excuse and defend white nationalism, he is fanning the flames of bigotry and intolerance.”

In January 2019, House Republicans stripped Rep. Steve King of all committee assignments over similar comments. In a New York Times interview, the Iowa Republican asked, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”

A spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell did not immediately respond to an American Independent Foundation inquiry about whether he plans to punish Tuberville.

In October 2022, Tuberville said at a Nevada Trump rally that Democrats “want reparations, because they think the people that do the crime are owed that! Bullshit! They are not owed that.”

“Sen. Tuberville’s comments are flat out racist, ignorant and utterly sickening,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement at the time. “His words promote a centuries-old lie about Black people that throughout history has resulted in the most dangerous policies and violent attacks on our community. We’ve seen this before from the far-right, and we’ve seen what they can do when they take power.”

Tuberville has drawn bipartisan criticism for blocking hundreds of military promotions from getting speedy approval in the Senate. He has said that he will not allow quick votes on Defense nominees as long as the military keeps its “policy of funding travel and additional paid time off for service members and their dependents seeking an elective abortion.”

Military leaders have said Tuberville’s blockade is harming national security. Since Monday, the Marine Corps has been without a confirmed commandant, as Tuberville has repeatedly blocked efforts to fill the position.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.