Lincoln Project Exposes National Security Threat Tommy Tuberville and His High Regard for White Nationalists

Tommy Tuberville may have been a great football coach in Alabama but he is a disgrace as a United States Senator. 

Over the last several months, the Alabaman (who still likes to be referred to as coach) who defeated dedicated public servant Doug Jones has distinguished himself in the Senate for all the wrong reasons. 

First, he tried to minimize the racist tendencies of the White Nationalist Crowd, especially those serving in the military, calling them Americans and Trump Republicans. 

After the blowback to those comments intensified, Mr. Tuberville tried to explain (not very well) in an interview with CNN's Kaitlan Collins, saying that Democrats were using the term white nationalist as a synonym for racism and identity politics. He later said (a little confusingly) that any white nationalist that is a racist should not be serving in the military. He also repeated that the nonracist White Nationalists were Americans. 

It took less than 24 hours for the blowback from Republicans to get Tuberville to backtrack and categorically state that all white nationalists are racists. 

Given Mr. Tuberville's comments on other occasions like a campaign event in Nevada in October 2022 where he espoused Replacement Theory, this public refutation of White Nationalism is probably purely cosmetic. 

Earlier, in the same interview with Collins, the Senator justified his hold on military appointments and promotions in the Senate because of his opposition to the Pentagon policy to allow service members to travel to abortion allowing states to get the procedure done if they choose. According to the interview, potentially 100 to 200 of these appointments and promotions are on hold because of Tuberville's hold. 

Talk about giving aid and comfort to America's adversaries. 

President Joe Biden, at a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, called out Tuberville for "jeopardizing U.S. security" and his "ridiculous position" for "injecting" social policy debate into foreign policy considerations, calling it "bizarre." 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/X8AniSYPM8E

Tuberville has been a frequent whipping boy for the President recently on this issue and also the Alabama Senator's embrace of provisions of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (broadband internet expansion) that he voted against. 

The Lincoln Project has had a field day this week critiquing Tuberville for his positions on white nationalism and his hold on military appointments and promotions, releasing three social media ads since the Collins interview. 

The first ad, called "Playing Dumb," replayed portions of the Collins/Tuberville interview where the Alabama Senator tried to minimize the racist connotations associated with White Nationalists, saying they are just people "with different beliefs" and there would be a problem if all the white people were thrown out of the armed services. 

The ad then shows Tuberville at the earlier mentioned campaign event in Nevada last year acting like a....wait for it...White Nationalists, espousing replacement theory and claiming the non-white parts of the country are "pro-crime" and "want to control what you have" with their calls for reparations (for slavery and other injustices.)

The ad closes with the caption: 

"Tommy Tuberville thinks White Nationalists are worth defending. This is the Republican Party."

Pictures are definitely worth a thousand words, especially videos of people speaking at rallies that can be very educational, including for people that try to tell the public they are not what the picture clearly shows they are.

The Project also released two ads condemning Tuberville's holds on military appointments and promotions. 

The first, titled "Tuberville vs U.S. Military," replays the portions of the CNN interview where the Alabama Senator discusses his hold on military appointments. 

The ad has fun refuting Tuberville's assertions that he is strong on the military and supports service members by pointing out thanks to the Alabama Senator:

• The Marine Corps does not have an official leader right now. 
• A leadership vacuum is developing in the United States Military which affects long-term strategic planning.
• Military Families have had to put their lives, including financial and residential decisions, on hold. 

The ad closes with the caption:

"Republicans claim to be strong on National Security...So why is Senator Tuberville holding our military hostage?"

It then has a quote from former Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Michael Mullin, stating,:

"Senator Tuberville is saying he supports the military, but he's having the opposite effect."

The second ad attacking Tuberville's holds has the harsher title "Traitior Tuberville." 

It could also have been easily titled "Tuberville Giving Aid and Comfort to the Enemy."

In this ad, the narrator defends the historic military legacy of the United States Marine Corps and all its service members.

The ad then pivots and states that "The Marine Corp faces a Domestic Enemy, a small man (with pictures of Tuberville in the background) with a big mouth determined to destroy the corp for his petty political agenda."

The narrator goes on, relaying:

"Tommy Tuberville is creating a national security nightmare. Who wins from Tuberville's attack on the Marine Corps? China, ISIS, Vladimir Putin. Tommy Tuberville insults every Marine who ever served, and he puts the men and women of the Marine Corp on the line of danger..."

"Every U.S. Marine is a Patriot. Tommy Tuberville is a Traitor."

When voters say they think Republicans are better on National Security than Democrats, point them to Tommy Tuberville and all the Republicans in the Senate that will not tell him to stop his holds on military appointments and promotions.