Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville took time out from his one man war against the us army being a racist again, which isn’t too surprising given that being a racist is Tuberville’s second favorite pastime.
This time, Tuberville questions whether white nationalism is racist to begin with. Tuberville offered this wisdom during an interview conducted by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who pressed Tuberville on another racist outburst a few months ago in which he claimed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was “destroying” our military by attempting to “Take out the white extremists, the white nationalists, the people who don’t believe in our agenda, like Joe Biden’s agenda.”
Tuberville did not accept Collins’ invitation to revise those past remarks, but instead cemented his shoes firmly in that soil. Collins again asked Tuberville to comment on whether the military should accept outspoken white nationalists, who believe “that the white race is superior to other races”.
“Well, that’s some people’s opinion,” Tuberville said dismissively. Asked to clarify, he instead offered a bowl of word mush.
“My opinion of a white nationalist – if anyone wants to call them white nationalists – is to me an American. He’s an American. Now if that white nationalist is a racist, I’m totally against anything they want to do because I’m 110% against racism.”
Tuberville continued in a similar vein, seeming to believe that by “white nationalists” the military was discriminating against all white people, no matter how many times Collins tried to explain it to him.
Tuberville: “I’m totally against identity politics. I think it’s ruining this country and I think the Democrats should be ashamed of how they’re doing this because it’s dividing this country, it’s making this country weaker every day. ”
Collins: “But that’s not identity politics. You said a white nationalist is an American, but a white nationalist is someone who believes in horrible things. Do you really think that’s is someone who should serve in the military?”
Tuberville: “Well, it’s just been given a name.”
Collins: “It’s not! It’s a real definition. There are real concerns about extremism.”
Tuberville: “If you want to get most white people out of this country from the military, we have huge problems.”
Collins: “It’s not the whites, it’s the white nationalists. You see the distinction, don’t you?”
Tuberville: “It probably has a few different beliefs, they have different beliefs. Now, if racism is one of those beliefs, I’m totally against it. I’m totally against racism.”
At this point, reader, you’re probably wondering: Is Tommy Tuberville stupid? And the answer is an emphatic yes, and how. Man is not only stupid, man is a walking monument to stupidity. It’s a scruffy Washington monument suited for mindless wandering around the US Capitol because Republicans in Alabama apparently thought it would be hilarious to name a block of wood in the Senate, and Tuberville was as close as you could get any by meeting the technical qualifications for the office.
It is very likely that Tuberville does not understand the difference between white nationalism and white Americans in general, because it is quite possible that Tuberville never met a white American who was not a white nationalist and he, like many other white nationalists, can’t figure out how you would separate the two to begin with.
We could bicker over Tuberville’s argument that white nationalism is “just a name that has been given”, instead explaining that since white nationalism is the belief that white citizens should be in charge of government while that non-white citizens are granted far fewer privileges or are removed from the country entirely for the purpose of maintaining white hegemony, it is inherently and explicitly racist because it’s fucked up here. But all Tuberville hears is that you plan to “take most white people out of this country from the military” because the man has a cinder block where his brain should be.
However, Tuberville was careful to preface this whole bizarre rant with an explanation of why he himself was not a racist. It’s because he was a football coach. Everything about Tuberville’s political career revolves around being a former football manager.
“I coached football for 40 years and had the opportunity to be around more minorities than anyone on this hill,” he told Collins. Oh, so here it is. It’s not even that Tommy has a black friend, he’s just seen lots of black people.
I swear the Alabama Republicans inflicted that jerk on us out of spite.
Anyway, we are now on the second part of the news cycle of Tuberville says clearly racist things, the one where other Republicans are already being asked to weigh in if they agree with Tuberville that white nationalism doesn’t count as racist and they run for the hills until the reporters forget about it again. Expect more than a few hiccups as Tuberville’s colleagues try to distance themselves from his claims while simultaneously trying to avoid angering the party’s white nationalist base.
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