Senator Tommy Tuberville’s assertion that the Democratic Party supports “reparation” for “the people that do the crime” has caught the attention of the White House, with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioning the racially tinged comments made by the junior senator during a press briefing on Tuesday.
After being questioned about the president’s reaction to another recent scandal involving overtly racist remarks made by the president of the Los Angeles City Council, Jean-Pierre mentioned how Democrats hold their own accountable in instances of racist comments, unlike “MAGA Republicans” who appear to celebrate and endorse that behavior.
“Here’s the difference between Democrats and MAGA Republicans: When a Democrat says something racist or anti-semitic, we hold Democrats accountable,” Jean-Pierre said in the briefing on Tuesday. “When a MAGA Republican says something racist or anti-semitic, they’re embraced by cheering crowds and become celebrated and sought after endorsements. Senator Tuberville, let’s not forget this just happened, saying black people commit crimes.”
The White House is among of a chorus of Democratic figures in recent days who have spoken out against the senator’s comments, made at a Trump rally in Nevada last week, with former Sen. Doug Jones, D-Alabama, describing the comments made by Tuberville as a “bridge too far” in a video statement made on Sunday.
“Somebody has just got to call bullshit on his bullshit,” Jones said in a live Twitter stream on Sunday. “Reparations is a term that is uniquely identified with the descendants of slaves. Black people in this country; African American population in this country. So it’s not hard to connect the dots between a rally in which he’s talking about Democrats wanting to pay reparations to criminals and basically the broad bush that he is painting the black community that they’re just criminals.”
Tuberville has yet to publicly clarify or explain his remarks.
