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Around this time a couple of years ago, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama shared some thoughts about public school teachers “in the inner city,” whom the right-wing senator said are lazy and possibly illiterate. As historian Heather Cox Richardson noted soon after, “This is literally the language former Confederates used about Black Americans during Reconstruction to justify white supremacy.”
While it’s true that Tuberville didn’t explicitly refer to race, he hadn’t exactly earned the benefit of the doubt. Months earlier, for example, he made remarks about reparations that, as an Associated Press report explained, “played into racist stereotypes about Black people committing crimes.”
That was soon followed by the Alabaman criticizing efforts to kick white nationalists out of the U.S. armed forces. Pressed for some kind of explanation, Tuberville’s office said the senator is “skeptical of the notion that there are white nationalists in the military,” despite a Trump-era report from the Pentagon documenting the threat of white supremacists inside the military.
As the Republican prepares to give up his Senate seat and run for governor, he’s sticking to a familiar script. AL.com reported late last week:
Tuberville was asked if President Donald Trump should cut off funding to large ‘sanctuary’ cities that attract immigrants. ‘You can stop the federal funding,’ Tuberville said. ‘President Trump can do anything he wants when it comes to the federal. Again, these inner-city rats, they live off the federal government. And that’s one reason we’re $37 trillion in debt.’
As part of the same interview, the GOP senator also took aim at Muslim-American immigrants who might be thinking about moving to Tuberville’s adopted home state of Alabama.
“Well, don’t be expecting a free lunch, I promise you,” he said. “Bring your lunch with you, because you’re not going to be welcomed if you’re going to bring that Communist, Islamic atmosphere with you. We’re not going to deal with it. I’m telling you right now. ... They are going to try and overwhelm us. ... We have got to fight back.”
So, a few things.
First, if Tuberville is looking for those “living off the federal government,” he might be surprised to learn about the degree to which Alabama receives more resources from Washington, D.C., than it sends to the nation’s capital in taxes.
Second, it’s disheartening to see how little the political discourse has evolved in some partisan circles: Too many Alabama politicians ran for office peddling racism in generations past, and it’s crushing to see those traditions live on.
Third, rhetoric such as "they are going to try and overwhelm us" and "we have got to fight back," sounds an awful lot like what we hear from advocates of the "great replacement" theory.
And finally, it’s worth appreciating the familiarity of the circumstances. I’m reminded of a point my MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones made last week. “If there is a defining characteristic of President Donald Trump’s second term ... I’d argue it’s the proliferation of unabashed and outspoken racism espoused by the president and many of his most loyal followers,” Ja’han wrote, adding, “Indeed, this administration has spent its opening months seemingly grooming the MAGA movement to be OK with blatant racism — or, at minimum, accept it as a natural part of political discourse.”
It’s against this backdrop that Tuberville added to his indefensible record with comments about “inner-city rats,” helping prove Ja’han’s point.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.