Republican U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville from Alabama has refused to apologize for saying that Democrats want reparations for slavery because “they think the people that do the crime are owed that.”
The right-wing GOP lawmaker has not responded to howls of outrage over the racist remark falsely equating Black people with criminals that he made Saturday at a raucous rally for former President Donald Trump in Nevada.
“Tuberville’s comments are flat out ignorant, racist and utterly sickening,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement. “His words promote a centuries-old lie about Black people.”
“This racist rant at a MAGA rant just cannot go uncalled out,” said former Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., who lost his reelection fight to Tuberville. “(I am) embarrassed for the state of Alabama.”
“It’s a white nationalist appeal that harkens back to a really dark time in the United States, a really dark time in Alabama,’ Jones added.
Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., denounced Tuberville for making “deeply white supremacist comments.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton called Tuberville’s comments “patently racist,” as well as “offensive and insulting to all Americans, Black and white.”
Tuberville, the former Auburn University football coach, made the outrageous claim at a Saturday evening campaign rally in Nevada featuring his political mentor Trump.
Without offering any evidence, Tuberville accused Democrats of promoting crime to “control what you have” and punctuated his claim by branding calls for reparations “bulls--t.”
“They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got,” Tuberville bellowed at the crowd. “They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.”
Tuberville did not mention the controversy or dial back the attack in a tweet lauding the rally as a “fantastic night.”
Alabama state Rep. Chris England, a former state Democratic chairman, said the remarks showed Tuberville’s true colors.
“The bulls--t is that this guy is a United States senator in the first place,” England tweeted.
Besides being offensive, Tuberville’s claims are demonstrably false. FBI data shows crime has slowed in the last year and most crimes are committed by whites.
Moreover, Democrats have not backed reparations for Black Americans to compensate for years of unpaid slave labor by their ancestors, although progressives have pressured the party to do so.
Reaction to Tuberville’s remarks was shockingly muted among Republicans, with no fellow GOP senators stepping up to denounce him.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a relative moderate who is locked in a tight reelection race in his Omaha-based seat, Sunday said the remarks were poorly worded. But he refused to condemn Tuberville’s rant.
“That’s not the way I present things,” Bacon said on “Meet the Press” on NBC. “But got to be honest that we have a crime problem in our country.”
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