Mitch McConnell had an interesting response today when asked about Senator Tuberville and whether he had any concerns about him having “a hard time denouncing white nationalism.”
REPORTER: "Do you have any concerns that you have a member of your conference, Sen. Tuberville, that seems to have a hard time denouncing white nationalism…? .
MCCONNELL: "White Supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our whole our country." pic.twitter.com/muFjXjMZ6R
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 11, 2023
McConnell’s response was short: “White Supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our whole our country.”
So what’s this all about? It’s about an interview from last night on CNN where Tuberville didn’t seem to think the term ‘white nationalism’ meant racism and Kaitlyn Collins did.
Watch the videos below (the 2nd is a continuation where the first got cut off):
Asked on CNN about his downplaying of white nationalism, Tommy Tuberville claims "I had opportunity to be around more minorities than anybody up here on this hill." Kaitlan Collins responds by raising her eyebrow. pic.twitter.com/tGuI7EEQzG
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 11, 2023
Collins: "A white nationalist is racist, Senator."@SenTuberville: "Well, that's your opinion." pic.twitter.com/iTI4BgLaR0
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 11, 2023
It appears to be a misunderstanding of the phrase itself. Tuberville made clear last night that he’s against racism, but he clearly believes the phrase is a catch-all used by the media to demonize white people.
Well, ‘believed‘. He came out today and denounced white nationalism after meeting with Republican Senators during lunch:
Sen. Tommy Tuberville declared to reporters ‘white nationalists are racist’ after a whirlwind day-long news cycle where he was forced to answer for saying it was a ‘matter of opinion.’
Tuberville’s new comments came after he left a lunch meeting with all GOP senators and headed to votes.
Notice that Daily Mail refers to the ‘whirlwind day-long news cycle’ on this issue. Yeah, the media knows how to quickly spin up a scandal when it’s a Republican. Always so predictable.