Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville backed off his defense of white nationalists, telling reporters in the Capitol that white nationalists "are racists."
Tuberville's brief comment in the hallway, after a regular weekly lunch with his GOP Senate colleagues, follows several media interviews in which he has repeatedly declined to describe white nationalists as racist.
In an interview Monday, Tuberville told CNN's Kaitlin Collins that white nationalists "have different beliefs. But if racism is one of those beliefs, I'm totally against it. I am totally against racism." Collins said white nationalists are racist. "That's your opinion," he responded.
Tuberville was asked if he wanted to clarify those remarks. "White nationalists are racist," he responded, without elaborating.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, says that white nationalist groups focus on the inferiority of non-white people and that their primary goal is to create "a white ethnostate." The group says the number of white nationalist groups reached a historic high in 2019, during Donald Trump's presidency.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Tuesday morning that Tuberville should apologize.
"The definition of white nationalism is not a matter of opinion," Schumer said. "White nationalism — the ideology that one race is inherently superior to others, that people of color should be segregated, subjected and relegated to second-class citizenship — is racist down to its rotten core."
Hours after Schumer's speech, when Tuberville told reporters that he believes white nationalists are racist, he also declined to apologize for his earlier comments. "No, he needs to apologize," Tuberville said of Schumer.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell also denounced the ideology.
"White supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our whole country," McConnell said when asked about Tuberville's comments.
