U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) is still facing strong criticism from Democrats for comments he made during former President Donald Trump’s rally in Nevada last Saturday.
“Some people say, ‘Well, they’re soft on crime.’ No. They’re not soft on crime. They’re pro-crime. They want crime,” Tuberville said at the rally. “They want crime because they want to take over what you’ve got. They want to control what you have. They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that. Bullshit! They are not owed that.”
Former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-Mountain Brook), who Alabamians soundly rejected at the ballot box in 2020, took to Twitter Sunday, posting a video in which he called Tuberville’s comments “racist” and “ignorant.”
Tommy is at it again. Let’s talk about it. https://t.co/hssCuqEqwN
— Doug Jones (@DougJones) October 9, 2022
“This racist rant at a MAGA rally just can’t go un-called out,” Jones said, “somebody’s got to call bullshit on his bullshhit, and it is just absolutely ridiculous … and so now United States senator, soon to be senior United States senator, comes up with this racist rant, and I’m trying to think: ‘Is it just racist rant or is it ignorance?’ And I decided it’s probably both.”
Jones said this is the kind of rhetoric you would expect at a Trump rally.
“You get into these MAGA extremist rallies that are going on around the country,” he said. “In this case, in Nevada, and you get all whipped up and you get a crowd going in a frenzy. There’s probably Confederate battle flags flying like crazy throughout that crowd … and it’s this white nationalist appeal that harkens back to a really dark time. A dark time for Alabama, a dark time in the United States, a really dark time in this country. Back in the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, and even before that in the Reconstruction era where these rants like this can cause really serious issues and problems.”
The former senator suggested Tuberville’s remarks were intentional.
“[Y]ou get all whipped up in the frenzy of those MAGA rallies and your true self I think comes out,” he said. “That wasn’t an accident. That was something that was said because guess what, he not only talked about criminals and reparations, he talked about food stamps. All of that is a part of the same thing.”
Jones said it’s time for people around the state to come out and condemn Tuberville’s comments.
“This kind of crap’s got to stop and people need to call this out,” he said, “not just people like me, not just people that identify as Democrats, businesses need to call this out. Every business leader in Alabama needs to call it out. Every Republican, Democrat office holder in Alabama needs to call this out.”
He also said there needs to be a new conversation when it comes to race relations in Alabama and in the country as a whole.
“We need a reset about where we are with race relations in America,” he said. “We need to reset a lot of this because … our state’s becoming more diverse in Alabama, our country’s becoming more diverse, and we need to celebrate this.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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