Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Tuesday condemned white supremacy when asked about fellow Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) hesitancy to call out white nationalists.
“White supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our whole country,” he told reporters when asked about Tuberville’s latest controversial comments on white nationalism.
Tuberville faced criticism earlier this year over an interview with an Alabama radio station, during which he said of white nationalists in the military, “I call them Americans.”
In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Monday, he doubled down on that statement, saying, “My opinion of a white nationalist, if someone wants to call them white nationalist, to me is an American.”
Tuberville sought to draw a distinction between white nationalism and racism, which he said he is against. He said white nationalist is a buzzword that liberals slap on their political opponents and said he didn’t necessarily want to throw people who identify as white nationalists out of the military.
He said it’s “just a cover word for the Democrats now where they can use it to try to make people mad across the country,” he said.
“I’m for … whoever wants to be in the military to fight for this country,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) ripped Tuberville over his comments Tuesday.
“The Senator from Alabama is wrong, wrong, wrong,” Schumer said. “The definition of white nationalism is not a matter of opinion.”
“For the Senator from Alabama to obscure the racist nature of white nationalism is indeed very, very dangerous,” Schumer continued. “He is fanning the flames of bigotry and intolerance.”