Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) made waves at a rally in Nevada on Saturday night arguing Democrats are “pro-crime” because they believe criminals are owed reparations.
The lawmaker was speaking at rally in Minden, Nevada, headlined by former President Donald Trump, who was there to boost candidates he has endorsed ahead of the midterm elections.
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“Some people say, well, they’re soft on crime. No, they’re not soft on crime. They’re pro-crime, they want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that. Bulls***! They are not owed that,” Tuberville said.
Reparations for U.S. decedents of slaves have been discussed by some Democratic lawmakers. Democrats on one House committee, with control of the majority, took an unprecedented step last year to advance legislation to examine whether the federal government should provide slavery reparations to African Americans. Republicans have been opposed to giving reparations, citing the amount of time passed and the complexity of finding direct decedents.
Tuberville faced criticism for his remarks, which went viral on social media.
CNN anchor Abby Phillip characterized Tuberville’s comments as being “straight-up racism from a sitting United States senator.”
“I mean, just straight-up racism from a sitting United States senator! But really talking to white voters about their own preconceived notions of Black people being responsible for crime and not deserving anything as a result,” Phillip said on CNN’s Inside Politics Sunday. “It’s really sad state of affairs.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) partially defended Tuberville’s comments on NBC’s Meet the Press, saying he “wouldn’t say it the same way.”
“I’m not going to say he’s being racist. But I wouldn’t use that language, be more polite. But the fact is we can’t ignore we have a 40 to 50% violent crime increase,” Bacon said.
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Crime has been a key message of the Republican platform for the 2022 midterms, with crimes, such as homicide, spiking in many major cities.
