Former college football coach and current United States Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) created headlines in May when he labeled white nationalists as “Americans.”
“We are losing in the military so fast. Our readiness in terms of recruitment,” Tuberville told WBHM, an NPR affiliate. “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.”
When asked if he believed white nationalists should be allowed in the U.S. military, Tuberville responded, “Well, they call them that. I call them Americans.”
Tuberville recently appeared on The Source, a CNN show hosted by Katlan Collins, who gave Tuberville a chance to clarify his remarks. Tuberville instead doubled down on his defense of white nationalism.
“First of all, I’m totally against any type of racist,” Tuberville said Monday, before noting as a college football coach he had “an opportunity to be around more minorities than anybody up here on this hill.”
Tuberville then went on to accuse Democratic lawmakers of using “identity politics” by using the term “white nationalist” as “just another word that they want to use other than racism.”
Tuberville said he’s only against white nationalists serving in the military if they’re racist.
“If people think that a white nationalist is racist, I agree with that,” Tuberville said.
“A white nationalist is someone who believes that the white race is superior to other races,” Collins replied.
“My opinion of a white nationalist — if somebody wants to call them a white nationalist — to me, is an American. It’s an American,” he said. “Now, if that white nationalist is a racist, I’m totally against anything that they want to do, because I am 110% against racism.”
When pressed on a white nationalist inherently being a racist due to their belief in the superiority of the white race, Tuberville called that an opinion.
“Well, that’s your opinion. That’s your opinion,” he said. “If it’s racism, I’m totally against it.”
[CNN]
