WATCH: MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Asks Analyst If Racism Like Tuberville’s Crime Rant Is Just Normal for ‘Republican Leaders’

MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell asked analyst Kimberly Atkins if racism like Sen. Tommy Tuberville‘s rant about crime and reparations has just become “normalized among Republican leaders.”

At a Trump rally in Minden, Nevada Saturday, Tuberville let loose a racist doozy of a rant:

Some people say, well, they’re soft on crime. No, they’re not soft on crime. They’re pro-crime, they want crime. 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!

On Sunday morning’s edition of NBC’s Meet the Press, Republican Congressman Don Bacon ostentatiously refused to call the rant racist, insisting it was merely not sufficiently “polite.”

On Tuesday’s edition of MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, the host asked Atkins if racism like Tuberville’s, and tolerance of it, is just normal for Republicans who are “eager” to win. Atkins essentially replied with a lengthy “Yep!”:

ANDREA MITCHELL: Kimberly, let’s talk also about Tommy Tuberville and his comments, which were so racist, conflating descendants of of slaves seeking reparations with all criminals, basically saying that Black people are criminal and not, not, not stepping back from that and Republican leaders defending it or trying to deflect from it. Has this become normalized among Republican leaders because they’re so eager to win the Senate?

KIMBERLY ATKINS: I think it has. It has been normalized. And, of course, we’ve seen the former president using racist language to describe describe Black and brown people as criminals for years now, ever since the 2016 election.

So it also isn’t new, but it’s of a piece with what we’re seeing across the– not everybody is using as patently racist language as Tommy Tuberville. But even in that debate in Ohio between J.D. Vance and Tim Ryan, we saw J.D. Vance harping on the issue of crime and talk, and linking it to things like illegal immigration. Those are the types of issues, the things that drive fear among voters that Republicans think they have been very successful with in the past. And we’re seeing that again.

That’s among those things that’s underlying. Yes, people are talking about the economy. But on the Republican side, this push on crime, this push about, to scare voters.

And then on the Democratic side, trying to make as much political hay as they can on the issue of abortion, which seems to have moved voters at least for a while, are what you’re seeing underlying. There’s still, this is still very much about culture wars and that’s what’s going to happen beyond the midterms into 2024.

Watch above via MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports.