Senator Chuck Schumer lit into Senator Tommy Tuberville, with the New Yorker offering to teach the Alabama lawmaker how to turn on his “white nationalist” radar.
In Schumer’s simple lesson, where he paints a picture of white nationalism in three bullet points, you don’t have to be on high alert to recognize white nationalism at work — it’s hard to miss. But you do have to be on high alert to combat it.
Schumer wrote to Tuberville directly online, with “hints” about how not to miss the next egregious display of American white nationalism, a toxic plague only encouraged by political leaders who fail to condemn it.
Schumer allows that It’s hard to condemn something you can’t see, so he provides a guide on defining white nationalism for those who don’t recognize it when they see it. Here is Schumer’s picture of the practice.
Let me give Sen. Tuberville a hint on defining white nationalists:
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) May 15, 2023
The man who murdered 10 people at a Buffalo market
The insurrectionists who waved Confederate flags in our Capitol
Those who chanted “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville
Those were white nationalists
Schumer wrote: “The man who murdered 10 people at a Buffalo market. The insurrectionists who waved Confederate flags in our Capitol. Those who chanted ‘Jews will not replace us’ in Charlottesville. Those were white nationalists.”
Schumer’s pedagogy comes as Sen. Tuberville’s office sought to shield his recent “white nationalist” comments from further scrutiny after he made them last week.
Asked whether he believed “white nationalists” should be able to serve in the military, Tuberville — a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee — said of the soldiers being referenced: “They call them that. I call them Americans.”
The “they” in Tuberville’s answer is the Biden administration, which has been working to uncover and eradicate white nationalist strains in the military.
It sounded to many listeners as though Tuberville was equating “white nationalists” with “Americans.”
But his office quickly sought to clarify — or reframe — the Senator’s comments. A statement from his office said that Sen. Tuberville’s comment “shows that he was being skeptical of the notion that there are white nationalists in the military, not that he believes they should be in the military,”
While Tuberville enjoys a lot of support among MAGA adherents, others are skeptical of his clarification.
My ‘Not involved in white nationalism’ T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt.” – Tommy Tuberville
— Matthew Eide, GM & CC OSRB (@mattheweide) May 10, 2023
