GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville promotes racist narrative about Black people, crime at Trump rally

Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville pushed a racist narrative about Black people and crime at a campaign rally hosted by former President Donald Trump on Saturday night.

As Republicans press crime as an election issue, Tuberville contended Democrats back reparations for descendants of slavery because "they think the people who do crime are owed that."

"They are not soft on crime," Tuberville said. "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 reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed that."

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Trump was in Nevada campaigning for U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt and gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm election.

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A call for reparations for  descendants of African slaves has been around for decades and has grown in recent years. Reparations could involve an apology for slavery, payments, land grants and more.

Before he was elected to in Congress in 2020, Tuberville coached football for over a decade at Auburn University, among other universities. 

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In a statement Monday, NAACP President Derrick Johnson called out Tuberville's remarks as "flat out racist."

"His words promote a centuries-old lie about Black people that throughout history have resulted in the most dangerous policies and violent attacks on our community," Johnson said. "We’ve seen this before from the far-right, and we’ve seen what they can do when they take power."

He then pointed to the Jan. 6 2021, attack on the Capitol, saying "the real criminals" may be in Tuberville's "orbit."

GOP Rep. Don Bacon, of Nebraska, said on NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday that he did not find the comments racist, but said Tuberville needs to be "more polite."

"I'm not going to say he's being racist," Bacon said. "But I wouldn't use that language, be more polite."

Former South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers called out Tuberville for his comments.

"Tommy Tuberville can go to hell," Sellers said on CNN on Sunday. 

"The fact is, he made tens of millions of dollars off unpaid Black men as a football coach. He literally has the stature he has because people went out there and assumed the risk and incurred the risk of concussions, playing hard and everything."