After vehemently defending white nationalists, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville attempted to walk back his racist commentary. As he left the Senate floor Tuesday, he stated to reporters: “White nationalists are racists.” His remark comes just one day after he told CNN that if people deem white nationalists racist then that’s just simply their opinion.
“My opinion of a White nationalist, if someone wants to call them White nationalist, to me is an American,” Tuberville said during an interview on CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlan Collins.” He continued: “I’m totally against racism, and if the Democrats want to say white nationalists are racist then I’m against that too.”
When Collins said that the definition of a white nationalist is someone who wants to turn America into a white ethnostate—which is inherently racist—Tuberville retorted by saying “That’s your opinion.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer condemned Tuberville on Tuesday by saying he was just “wrong, wrong, wrong.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also stated that “White supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in the whole country.” Republican whip Sen. John Thune explained to reporters that Tuberville’s remarks were asinine and that Thune was “not sure exactly what he was trying to say there.”
“I mean I would just say that there is no place for White nationalism in our party, and I think that is kind of full stop,” Thune said. It’s clear that by backtracking his original statements, Tuberville wanted take the heat off of his hateful remarks. However, considering his history of promoting racism, it’s safe to say that the Alabama senator is—and will always be—full of sh*t.