Schumer denounces Sen. Tommy Tuberville on white nationalism

Sen. Chuck Schumer Tuesday denounced Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville for defending white nationalism and claiming the hateful ideology is not necessarily racist.

“The senator from Alabama is wrong, wrong, wrong,” said Schumer (D-N.Y.) “The definition of white nationalism is not a matter of opinion.”

“He is fanning the flames of bigotry and intolerance,” the Senate majority leader added.

Tuberville, one of the most conservative Republicans in the Senate, pushed back on the idea that all white nationalists are racists in a rocky interview on CNN Monday night.

“My opinion of a white nationalist, if someone wants to call them white nationalist, to me, is an American. It’s an American,” Tuberville told anchor Kaitlan Collins, a fellow Alabama native.

The former Auburn University football coach claimed that he only opposes those white nationalists who may also be racists.

“Now, if that white nationalist is a racist, I’m totally against anything that they want to do, because I am 110% against racism,” Tuberville said.

Schumer countered that there can be no doubt that white nationalism is inherently racist.

“White nationalism — the ideology that white people are inherently superior, that people of color should be segregated, subjected, and relegated to second-class citizenship — is racist down to its rotten core,” Schumer said.

GOP leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) agreed.

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

Tuberville is a far right-winger and a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump.

Even though Alabama is among the reddest states in the nation, Tuberville’s fellow GOP Sen. Katie Britt broke with her colleague.

“White supremacy and racism have absolutely no place in our country,” Britt said when asked about his remarks. “Period. The end.”

Tuberville has courted controversy before. He has held up all military promotions for months over his objections to the Pentagon’s policy that allows service members to get reimbursed for travel to receive abortion care.