Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) sparked uproar Tuesday after refusing to denounce white nationalists in a CNN interview, forcing Republican senators to respond to the controversial comments and giving Democrats political ammo to go on the attack. 

Asked about Tuberville’s comments about white nationalism in the military, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) issued a forceful denunciation of white supremacy at his weekly leadership conference. 

“White supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our whole country,” McConnell told reporters.  

McConnell’s top deputy, Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), said there’s no room for white nationalists in the GOP or the military.  

“I just think there isn’t any place for it. We are a country obviously that has built around a set of principles, that’s welcoming,” he said.  

But Thune didn’t want to comment on Tuberville’s argument on CNN that white nationalists aren’t necessarily racist.  

“That’s not for me to decide,” he said.  

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has Cuban heritage, said “ethnic nationalism is un-American and I think it would be problematic in the military.” 

“My definition of a white nationalist is someone that believes that America belongs to white people. That’s not American, that’s un-American, and that would be a problem in the military,” he said.  

Tuberville’s Alabama colleague, Sen. Katie Britt (R), also called out Tuberville, telling a reporter for HuffPost: “White supremacy and racism have absolutely no place in our country. Period. The end.”  

Tuberville sparked controversy earlier this year when asked whether white nationalists should be able to serve in the military. 

“Well, they call them that. I call them Americans,” he told an NPR station in Alabama. 

The senator then doubled down on those comments when asked about them by CNN host Kaitlan Collins in a Monday interview. 

He clashed with Collins after she said that a white nationalist is “someone who believes that the white race is superior to other races.” 

“Well, that’s some people’s opinion,” Tuberville responded.  

“My opinion of a white nationalist, if someone wants to call them a white nationalist, to me, is an American,” he said. “It’s an American. Now, if that white nationalist is a racist, I’m totally against anything that they want to do because I am 110 percent against racism.”  

He dismissed “white nationalist” as a label that liberals like to slap on their political opponents.

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” and pushed back against calls to purge white nationalists from the military.  

Tuberville said he’s for “whoever wants to be in the military to fight for this country.” 

Those comments drew a harsh rebuke from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).  

“The senator from Alabama is wrong, wrong, wrong,” Schumer declared. “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,” he said. “He is fanning the flames of bigotry and intolerance.” 

Tuberville did appear to backtrack from his comments later in the day, asserting that “white nationalists are racists.”  

But he only changed course after being hounded by members of the media throughout the day to explain and justify his comments on CNN.  

Raising his profile

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is seen during a Senate Armed Services Committee nomination hearing for U.S. Air Force Gen. Charles Brown to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. (Greg Nash)

Despite the intense blowback on Capitol Hill, there’s evidence that Tuberville’s high-profile battles with the political establishment in Washington are raising his national political profile and strengthening his support among conservatives at home.  

One Republican senator who requested anonymity observed that Tuberville appears to be gaining political strength in Alabama after holding up 260 nonpolitical military promotions for months to protest the Biden administration’s abortion policies at the Department of Defense.  

A Morning Consult poll published in May showed that 50 percent of respondents in Alabama approved of Tuberville’s performance while only 32 percent disapproved.  

Senate Republicans weren’t happy about having to spend much of the day answering questions regarding Tuberville’s views about whether white nationalists are regular Americans who shouldn’t be pushed out of the military.  

Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) refused to talk about Tuberville as he stepped onto an elevator after voting on the Senate floor. 

“I answered a lot of questions about that,” he told reporters, flashing a tight-lipped smile.  

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) raised his hand and waved away a question about Tuberville as he stepped into a Senate GOP leadership office before the weekly GOP conference lunch.  

Thune admitted that he wasn’t sure what Tuberville was trying to say by his comments about white nationalism. 

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Tuberville’s comments about white nationalism represent one of many problems that Republicans have to deal with as they face a growing schism between traditional conservatism and the populist America-first conservativism that former President Donald Trump thrust into the spotlight during his time in office.  

“Our party has lots of problems, add that to the list,” he said of the new debate over the meaning of white nationalism.  

But Romney also defended his colleague, insisting “I don’t think Senator Tuberville is in any way racist.”  

Leery on questions of motive

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) questions OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during a Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law hearing to discuss oversight of artificial intelligence. (Greg Nash)

Senators are usually leery about commenting on their colleagues’ motives or character because they need their cooperation to get even the most routine tasks done on the chamber floor in a timely manner.  

Tuberville has flexed his muscle this year by holding up Biden’s military promotions for months on end, even though many Republicans, including McConnell, have said they don’t agree with his tactics.  

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) appeared baffled by Tuberville’s comments and questioned whether his colleague knew that many people interpret the term “white nationalist” to describe someone who promotes white supremacist or white separatist ideology.  

“I don’t know that he knows what that means to some people. Or maybe he does and doesn’t care … He’s clearly sort of doubled down on the whole notion,” he said.  

“There are certain things that I get you might be able to make a technical case for it. ‘OK, I call them Americans.’ Well yeah, but so is everybody in prison for life for murder. They’re Americans. That’s technically true. But it still doesn’t mean you honor them,” he added. 

But Cramer advised his colleague to stop talking about the divisive topic.  

“It’s unnecessary. I know that much. As far as an issue for him, he doesn’t need it. I don’t know why he insists on using it,” he said.   

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said “white nationalism to me is a political movement based upon a person’s race, which I don’t give any support or validity to.”  

“If you’re a member of the white nationalist movement, then I think that movement is based on race and I don’t like it,” he said.  

Graham said “it’s up to” Tuberville whether to stop defending white nationalists in the military but expressed his own belief that people who espouse views of racial superiority shouldn’t serve in the armed forces.  

“If a military member is on social media espousing racial superiority, then kick them out,” he said.  

Julia Shapero contributed.