CNN’s Jake Tapper says Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) once made the “most abjectly racist statement” he’d ever heard from a senator.
The CNN host was discussing widely criticized remarks Tuberville made in October equating Black people to criminals. The senator is in the headlines again this week after he defended white nationalists (again).
At a Nevada rally for former President Donald Trump on Oct. 8, the first-term senator complained that Democrats are soft on crime, saying: “They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that. Bullshit! They are not owed that.”
Tapper played back a clip of the moment on Tuesday.
“So just to be pretty clear here, Sen. Tuberville, in addition to falsely saying the Democrats want crime ― that’s a quote ― they want crime, they want reparations,” Tapper said. “That is the discussion about whether descendants of slaves should be paid reparations.”
“‘They want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed that,’” he added. “That is the most abjectly racist statement I have heard from a U.S. senator in my life.”
Tuberville on Monday argued that it’s just “some people’s opinion” that white nationalists believe the white race is superior to others. In his eyes, white nationalists are just Americans who “have a few, probably different beliefs.”
He defended himself to reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, insisting he’s not racist because he “dealt with” lots of minorities when he was a college football coach.
Tuberville has faced widespread backlash over his rhetoric, including from several Senate Democrats.
“This isn’t a joke. This is deadly serious stuff,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said of the comments.