CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday had some sharp words for Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who told fellow CNN host Caitlan Collins on Monday night that being a white nationalist doesn't necessarily make someone a racist.
In analyzing Tuberville's comments, Tapper said that Alabama's senior senator "seems to be parsing the difference between people who are abject racists like members of the Klu Klux Klan and people who are merely white nationalist who believe in the supremacy of white people," which Tapper described as "a distinction without a difference."
The CNN host noted, however, that Tuberville has his own history of deploying racist dog whistles on the campaign trail.
"His comments make more sense when you consider what he said in October at a campaign rally, the most abjectly racist thing I've heard from a U.S. senator in decades," he said. "I'm quoting here, he said... 'Democrats,' quote, 'want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.'"
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Tapper argued that this was "nakedly racist" because it framed all Black Americans as "the people that do the crime" since they would be the ones receiving any hypothetical reparations for slavery.
"I think there are serious questions about his views when it comes to matters of race and white supremacy," Tapper concluded.
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'Most abjectly racist thing I've heard from a US senator': Tapper shreds GOP's Tommy Tubervillewww.youtube.com
