Sen. Chuck Schumer denounced Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Tuesday for defending white nationalism and claiming the hateful ideology is not necessarily racist.
“The senator from Alabama is wrong, wrong, wrong,” said Schumer (D-N.Y.) “The definition of white nationalism is not a matter of opinion.”
“He is fanning the flames of bigotry and intolerance,” the Senate majority leader added.
Tuberville, one of the most conservative Republicans in the Senate, pushed back on the idea that all white nationalists are racists in a rocky interview Monday night on CNN.
“My opinion of a white nationalist, if someone wants to call them white nationalist, to me, is an American. It’s an American,” Tuberville told anchor Kaitlan Collins, a fellow Alabama native.
The former Auburn University football coach claimed that he opposes only those white nationalists who may also be racists.
“Now, if that white nationalist is a racist, I’m totally against anything that they want to do, because I am 110% against racism,” Tuberville said.
Schumer countered that there can be no doubt that white nationalism is inherently racist.
“White nationalism — the ideology that white people are inherently superior, that people of color should be segregated, subjected, and relegated to second-class citizenship — is racist down to its rotten core,” Schumer said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) agreed, although he declined to address Tuberville by name.
“White supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our whole country,” McConnell said.
Later Tuesday, Tuberville backpedaled and told Capitol Hill reporters “white nationalists are racists” when asked to clarify his statements.
Tuberville is a far right-winger and a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump.
Even though Alabama is among the reddest states in the nation, Tuberville’s fellow Alabama GOP senator, Katie Britt, broke with her colleague.
“White supremacy and racism have absolutely no place in our country,” Britt said when asked about his remarks. “Period. The end.”
Tuberville has courted controversy before. He has held up all military promotions for months over his objections to the Pentagon’s policy that allows service members to get reimbursed for travel to receive abortion care.
