MAGA Senator Appears to Double Down on White Nationalists in the Military: ‘We All Got Different Beliefs’
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) offered some head-scratching replies to a reporter on Thursday when he was pressed to clarify his recent remarks in favor of white nationalists being in the military – remarks he appeared to double down on.
Tuberville argued that the term “white nationalist” has become synonymous with Trump supporters, and appeared to conflate white nationalism with religious beliefs. He told NBC reporter Julie Tsirkin, “…white nationalists, I mean, what the heck is that? We all got different beliefs. You know I’m a Church of Christ, Catholics, we got different people. And we have to make one military. We can’t start distinguishing different types of people.”
Tuberville was given the opportunity to clarify comments he made to Alabama’s WBHM radio station on Monday when asked if white nationalists should be allowed to serve in the military. Referring to the Biden administration, Tuberville replied, “They call them that. I call them Americans.”
Tsirkin gave Tuberville the chance to explain his controversial statement, and she posted the conversation on Twitter:
TSIRKIN: Do you want to clarify your comments?
TUBERVILLE: The Democrats characterize all MAGA Republicans in the military as white nationalists. Wrong. Okay, we can’t get politics in the military. This has nothing to do with extremists and all this, you know, my first day here was January 6, had several senators stand up on the Senate floor saying to me we got too many white nationalists, I mean, what the heck is that? We all got different beliefs. You know I’m a Church of Christ, Catholics, we got different people. And we all have to make one military. We can’t start distinguishing different types of people. OK. That’s all I say.
TSIRKIN: But sir, there are folks with white nationalist beliefs unfortunately in this country, do you believe they should be serving in the military?
TUBERVILLE: We got to define that first. What is a white nationalist?
TSIRKIN: A white nationalist propagates Naziism, a white nationalist could be someone that doesn’t believe that Black and Brown people are equals…
TUBERVILLE: A white nationalist is a Nazi?
TSIRKIN: Well, that could be one of their beliefs — a white supremacist…
TUBERVILLE: I don’t look at it like that.
TSIRKIN: How do you look at it?
TUBERVILLE: I look at a white nationalist as a as a Trump Republican. That’s what we’re called all the time. A MAGA person and that’s what —
TSIRKIN: Do you agree with that characterization?
TUBERVILLE: We agree that we should not be characterizing Trump supporters as white nationalists.
TSIRKIN: So what you’re saying is Democrats are painting Trump supporters as white nationalists but that’s not what they are?
TUBERVILLE: Every day. Every day on the floor. The first day after I got here on January 6, that night, and that’s not right. Let’s not get into politics and calling people names. The military is about somebody that is fighting for the security of all of us. I don’t care if you’re Catholic, Baptist, it doesn’t make any difference. We’re all in this together. And so they’re politicizing the military so much. It is ruining our military. Look at look at our our recruiting. We’re getting hammered 15,000 down last year in army this year, one of the branches of military our at quota at this point are recruiting what they want to recruit. Something’s going wrong in our military. So I’ve seen where different leaders have said stuff about me and about our military. They need to worry about building the military. Don’t worry about me and building a military that’s that that protects all of us and our allies. That’s what I’m about.
