Tuberville Admits It: Trump Republicans are White Nationalists

I spent 34 years of my life as a loyal member of the Republican Party. When I returned from Iraq in 2008 I realized just how much that the Bush administration aided by Congress and Right Wing Media, not to mention some of the mainstream media, had lied to us about that war. A few months later the GOP nominated a religious fanatical Christian religious extremist airhead named Sarah Palin as its nominee for Vice President.

The thought of such a person being a heartbeat away from the Presidency sacred the shit out of me. About a week after her nomination I left the GOP knowing that far worse was to come. I cannot say that I saw everything that was coming, but I expected a Taliban-like Christians to gain control of the Party. I knew this because I had gone to church with many of them. I had watched people who at one time were middle of the road conservatives become angry, power hungry people, intent on pushing their beliefs down the throats of others using the police power of the state.

What I expected in 2010 became reality as the Tea Party, the Freedom Caucus, MAGA and Trump, all backed overwhelmingly by White Evangelical Christians, and by White Nationalists. During that time I have seen so many people that I knew become further radicalized, often now holding White Nationalist beliefs. They are in the forefront of rolling back the civil rights of minorities, immigrants, women, and LGBTQ+ people. Likewise, they are rolling back the voting rights of people through gerrymandering, entrenching minority rule by law, and by disenfranchising voters by actively attempting to restrict voting and not count their votes, to silence the free speech of individuals as well as corporations that they consider “woke.”

Since 2020 many of them have actively supported or participated the insurrection and attack the U.S. Capitol, the prior attempt the sieze the Michigan Statehouse and kidnap the Governor, and the ongoing threats of Donald Trump.

But the most prominent of them seldom give away the game by actually stating what they are, until this week when Senator Tommy Tuberville, the former football coach at Auburn University admitted it and doubled down on it the next morning.

Admittedly, Tuberville is not the brightest bulb in the box. He once described World War Two as a war to rid Europe of Socialism, and he couldn’t name the three branches of the Federal Government. Tuberville is, based on his words and actions as a Christian/White Nationalist. He campaigned on many policies supported by them and once in office has been a consistent supporter of the insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol and those who are being prosecuted and convicted for their part in it.

His latest stunt has been holding up the promotions of nearly 200 senior military officers for over three months, because he opposes the Defense Department paying for the transportation of women with obstetrics complications, some requiring abortions from states where they are stationed that have banned and or criminalized abortion, to states where they can receive the care that they need. The are two issues in this. First he has no respect for those that volunteer to serve our country, especially women. Second, in holding up these promotions, including the men and women chosen to command the U.S. 7th Fleet in the Pacific, the 5th Fleet in the Middle East and Persian Gulf, the 2nd Fleet in the Atlantic, as well as the U.S. representative to NATO’s Military Committee, the Chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, Chief of Staff of the Army; the Chief of Naval Operations; the Commandant and Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps; the Director of the National Security Agency and Commander of United States Cyber Command; and the Commander of United States Northern Command. Every single one of these officers holds a position vital to ongoing threats to our national security. Likewise, holding up those promotions holds up the promotions of less senior officers.

Tuberville’s actions are reckless and irresponsible, and even though Senator Mitch McConnell, the GOP minority leader opposes Tuberville’s action, under Senate rules there is nothing he can do to get around him.

But the trouble doesn’t end there for the Alabama Senator. Last week he told a reporter from WBHM:

“We are losing in the military so fast. Our readiness in terms of recruitment. And why? I’ll tell you why, because the Democrats are attacking our military, saying we need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists, people that don’t believe in our agenda, as Joe Biden’s agenda. They’re destroying it.”

In that interview Tuberville claim that the military was teaching CRT, or Critical Race theory, a claim not supported by fact, and that teaching about the dangers of White extremism and White Nationalism was harming recruitment. But that is not true. The reality is that the pool of those eligible to join the military continues to shrink, with more young men and women than ever disqualified for obesity, drug use or criminal records. Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville testified before Congress last month that “only 23% of Americans ages 17-24 are qualified to serve without a waiver to join, down from 29% in recent years.”

When questioned on Wednesday, Tuberville was asked about the danger of White Nationalists in the military. The FBI identified White extremism and nationalism as domestic terrorist threats more significant than foreign terrorist groups. The latest of the FBI updates is here:

https://www.dni.gov/files/NCTC/documents/news_documents/2022_10_FBI-DHS_Strategic_Intelligence_Assessment_and_Data_on_Domestic_Terrorism.pdf

A Council on Foreign Relations article referenced many acts by active duty and reserve members and veterans involved with Right Wing, White Nationalist, and White Supremacist extremist groups. That report is available at this link.

https://www.cfr.org/blog/violent-far-right-terrorist-threat-us-military

It should not be forgotten that White Nationalist extremists have been some of the deadly terrorists in our history, notably Timothy McVeigh who destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, were former Military personnel. Numerous others have been arrested and convicted of various plots against U.S. Government officials, installations, and even their own units. Others have been caught stealing or attempting to steal military weapons to arm White Nationalist terrorist groups.

Likewise, In 2017, Military Times reported, "Nearly one in four troops polled say they have seen examples of white nationalism among their fellow service members, and troops rate it as a larger national security threat than Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan." In the 2019 version of the poll, the proportion rose to one in three.

But Senator Tuberville does not consider them to be a threat. Following his previously mentioned comments WBHM reporter asked him to clarify his remarks: "You mentioned the Biden administration trying to prevent white nationalists from being in the military. Do you believe they should allow white nationalists in the military?”

The Senator replied: “Well, they call them that. I call them Americans.” The comment sparked an uproar and Tuberville’s spokesman tried to clarify what the Senator said, "Sen. Tuberville’s quote shows that he was being skeptical of the notion that there are white nationalists in the military, not that with he believes they should be in the military.” Despite the evidence to the contrary, Tuberville attempted to deny the facts and to turn the blame on Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s decision to counter this through education.

On Thursday Tuberville was asked by NBC News reporter Julie Tsirkin tried to get Tuberville to clarify if he understands the definition of a white nationalist and if he actually defends people who feel that way. In response he said, “The Democrats characterize all MAGA Republicans in the military as white nationalists….”

Tsirkin then asked “But sir, there are folks with white nationalist beliefs in this country unfortunately, do you believe that they should serve in the military.” He then commented “We have to define that first. What is a white nationalist?” Tsirkin replied, “A white nationalist propagates Nazism. A white nationalist could be someone who doesn’t believe that Black or Brown people are equals.”

That is where Tuberville decided, knowingly or unknowingly to state his ignorance about about White Nationalism. He replied, “A white nationalist is a Nazi?” Tsirkin replied, “Well, that could be one of their beliefs - a white nationalist,” but before she could finish Tuberville testily interrupted. “I don’t look at it like that.” So she asked, “how do you look at it?”

It was here that Tuberville stated the truth about himself and many MAGA Republicans, saying: “I look at a white nationalist as a Trump Republican. That’s what we’re called all the time,” following which he went into playing the victim of Democrats and accusing them of “politicizing the military,” something that I watched Republicans do over my nearly 40 years of military service in the Army and Navy with a large part of my Navy time with the Fleet Marine Force. In fact in 1999 following an outbreak of White Nationalism and violence at Camp LeJeune was asked by my battalion commander to do extensive research and provide small unit training about it to the 1,100 Marines in the unit. Many Marines came to me afterward to tell me how outsiders including veterans tried to recruit them.

The problem has gotten worse and not better, but rather than deal with it, Tuberville plays the victim and blames everyone except the Nazis by other names that are the beating heart of White Nationalism. One cannot be more honest. Now to whether he actually believes anything he says other than to curry favor with Donald Trump and the GOP MAGA base, I am not sure, because when he was the head coach at the University of Mississippi, “Ole Miss,” Tuberville became involved in the movement to ban Confederate flags from the football stadium by requesting that the students quit waving them during the home football games, saying “We can't recruit against the Confederate flag".

That being said, Tuberville has transformed himself into the epitome of a true believer in Christian and White Nationalism without claiming to know what it is while condemning people that call him out on it. He is a sycophant of Trump. He can do no other than to do what he is doing, after all his honor is loyalty, not to the Constitution, but to Trump alone. That is why he tells the truth even when he lies.