Tommy Tuberville Refuses to Admit White Nationalists Are Racist

Senator Tommy Tuberville can’t—or won’t—wrap his mind around the fact that white nationalism is inherently racist.

The Alabama Republican has insisted multiple times in recent months, including twice in the past 24 hours, that while racism is bad, white nationalists are not racist. The Southern Poverty Law Center defines white nationalists as groups that “espouse white supremacist or white separatist ideologies, often focusing on the alleged inferiority of nonwhite persons. Their primary goal is to create a white ethnostate.” So it’s pretty clearly an ideology based on racism.

White nationalist “is just a name that’s been given,” Tuberville told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Monday night, seemingly intentionally conflating being white and being a white nationalist. “So if you’re going to do away with most white people in this country out of the military, we’ve got huge problems.”

People have different beliefs, and “if racism is one of those beliefs, I am totally against it,” Tuberville said.

When Collins told him that that was what white nationalism entailed, Tuberville said, “Well, that’s your opinion.”

When ABC reporter Rachel Scott pressed him on the matter Tuesday morning, Tuberville doubled down, insisting the racism element was simply one definition of white nationalism, but not the definition.

Even more frightening than Tuberville’s seemingly deliberate obtuseness, though, is why he is defending white nationalists: He believes they should be allowed to serve in the military. In May, the senator said white nationalists should be allowed in the U.S. military because blocking any ideological group from serving would weaken the institution. Tuberville also referred to the military as a “strong, hard-nosed, killing machine,” which could possibly explain why he thinks extremists belong in the armed forces.

But if we’re talking about a weakened military, Tuberville should look in the mirror. Marine Corps Commandant David Berger stepped down Monday, leaving the corps leaderless for the first time in more than a century. His replacement has been nominated but not yet confirmed because Tuberville has blocked hundreds of military promotions since March in objection to the Defense Department’s abortion policy. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has warned Tuberville’s blockade “harms America’s national security” and poses a “clear risk” to the military’s readiness.

The QAnon Shaman is not happy about sharing the spotlight with Nick Fuentes.

College Republicans United, a group whose hallmark values include “opposition to immigration and multiculturalism,” and spreading “Christian Nationalism across the country,” is hosting its national convention later this month. And the antisemitic and white nationalist Fuentes is set to headline the event alongside Jake Chansley, who earned more of his notoriety as the QAnon Shaman after rioting at the Capitol on January 6.

Chansley apparently “was not aware” that he’d be “sharing the stage with someone who wants a 16-year-old wife”—and he’s now apparently taking the supposed surprise as a challenge to “expose” Fuentes as a “false prophet.”

Hours after expressing his incredulity, Chansley confirmed he will attend the conference to “show these college republicans what a REAL alpha male looks & sounds like”:

Fuentes has indeed expressed his desire for a 16-year-old child bride—when he turns 30 years old. But even beyond that, Fuentes has racked up quite a record. He was previously banned from social media outlets for violent rhetoric about people of color, women, Jewish people, immigrants, LGBTQ people, Covid-19, and much more. He has also proudly said he’s “just like Hitler” (whom he has also called “a pedophile … also really fucking cool”), and that “Catholic monarchy, and just war, and crusades, and inquisitions” are much better than democracy.

Chansley meanwhile has long been active in trying to spread the QAnon conspiracy theory. After the 2020 election, he focused his efforts on challenging the election results, specifically in Arizona, culminating in his participation in the January 6 attack on the Capitol (and in a photo of him with his fist raised as he stood on the dais on the Senate floor).

Meanwhile, the original venue for the conference, the Hassayampa Inn, has announced that the “event will no longer be held” there anymore. Now, the College Republicans United website ambiguously says the conference will be held in downtown Prescott, Arizona. “This year’s convention promises to be bigger, better, and more impactful than ever before,” the organization assures, noting that the actual location will be “made public July 28th.”

The event will include other members of the far right—including neo-Nazi streamer “Baked Alaska” and a former Arizona Representative expelled from the state House. It was originally set to include other since-delisted speakers, like former Arizona Representative David Stringer, who resigned after refusing to cooperate with an ethics investigation into previous charges against him for paying two boys under the age of 15—one who was developmentally disabled—$10 each to have sex with him.

Out of all that, though, Chansley’s discomfort with the event is focused primarily on Fuentes. May the Alpha Male games begin!

This article has been updated.

The federal prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden’s taxes hit back at Republican claims that the Justice Department had blocked the probe.

The president’s much-embattled son agreed to a plea deal in June that will see him plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of tax evasion and participate in a pretrial program for a gun offense. Hunter will avoid jail time under the deal, which was negotiated with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss and has infuriated Republicans.

Shortly before the deal was struck, an IRS agent accused Weiss—a Trump appointee—and Justice Department officials of dragging their feet on investigating Hunter Biden. In particular, the agent, Gary Shapley, alleged Weiss said in October that Weiss did not have final say on whether charges would be filed.

Shapley also claims Weiss said he had been blocked from pursuing charges in D.C.—where Hunter supposedly committed his most serious crimes—and that the Justice Department would not grant him special counsel status, which would have let him bring charges outside his jurisdiction. Republicans have jumped on Shapley’s claims as proof that the Hunter Biden investigation did not go far enough.

Weiss hit back at those claims Monday evening in a letter to Senator Lindsey Graham. “To clarify an apparent misperception and to avoid future confusion, I wish to make one point clear: in this case, I have not requested Special Counsel designation,” Weiss wrote.

He explained that he would have been granted that status “if it proved necessary,” although he did not say who ultimately decided that it did not. Weiss also said he had “never been denied the authority to bring charges in any jurisdiction.”

Weiss had previously smacked down Shapley’s claims in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan. Republicans have seized on Shapley’s accusations as part of their sprawling and evidence-less investigations into the Biden family’s alleged corruption.

Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson understands that 9/11 was not great, and that it’s not awesome that Saudi Arabia killed an American resident and journalist.… But dang it, he just loves golf too much to not give Saudi Arabia at least a little slack!

“Well listen, I have the deepest sympathy for 9/11 families, I understand the issue of sportswashing, I don’t think there’s any—there’s not enough billions of dollars for the Saudis to wash away the stain of the brutal Khashoggi murder,” Johnson began. “But the reality is we all buy oil, we use—we drive cars, we are the ones that are filling up the coffers of the Public Investment Fund,” he added, referring to the Saudi government-controlled wealth fund that backs LIV Golf.

“I would rather have the Saudis invest their oil wealth in the U.S. as opposed to China or Russia—that’s just a reality of the world,” he continued. “And again, I’m a lover of the game of golf. I love watching golf. I want to see the best golfers in the world compete against each other and not be split into different leagues and pretty well destroy the competition at the highest level.”

According to Johnson, it is a bigger shame that some of the best golfers in the world might not be in the same league, than, you know ... everything else.

Johnson’s comments come while the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League—which last month reached an agreement to merge with the North American PGA Tour—is under heightened scrutiny.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Permanent Investigations is hosting a hearing on the merger Tuesday; the hearing comes just one day after the league announced that it will host its $50 million championship at Donald Trump’s National Doral Golf Club for the second year in a row.

That kind of money is top of mind for Johnson, who wonders what we would want Saudi Arabia to do with all that cash instead, if not buying out teams and leagues left and right in a massive sportswashing campaign:

A key informant in the Republican investigation into the Biden family has been charged with acting as a foreign agent for China.

Gal Luft, the co-head of an energy think tank, has repeatedly accused President Joe Biden and his family of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from China. FBI agents interviewed Luft, who holds U.S. and Israeli citizenship, in Brussels in 2019 over his claims. The bureau decided not to pursue the investigation further after speaking with him, but Republicans have latched onto his accusations nonetheless.

Luft—who again, has repeatedly charged the Biden family of Chinese corruption—was charged Monday night with brokering deals for China, Iran, and even Libya. The U.S Attorney for the southern district of New York released a statement alleging that in 2016, Luft paid a former Trump advisor on behalf of Chinese principals, without registering as a foreign agent, to push policies favorable to China.

The attorney’s office accused Luft of setting up meetings between Iranian officials and a Chinese energy company for potential oil deals, in violation of U.S. sanctions on Iran. Luft also allegedly worked as an illicit arms dealer, attempting to broker the sale of weapons to China, Libya, Kenya, and the United Arab Emirates.

Luft is not currently in U.S. custody. He was arrested in Cyprus in February, but fled when he was released on bail to await extradition. He has repeatedly insisted that the Biden administration is trying to silence him—a claim on which Republicans have gladly seized.

“He’s literally fleeing for his life right now. He’s on the run,” Senator Ron Johnson said of Luft Sunday.

Speaking to Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, Johnson said Luft is “an important witness. He needs to be granted immunity to be able to testify and tell his story.”

House Republicans have accused the Bidens of accepting bribes and influence peddling, but their months-long investigation has yet to produce any actual proof. Things took an odd turn in May when House Oversight Chair James Comer, who is spearheading the investigation, admitted that one of his key informants had gone missing. That informant was later revealed to be Luft.

Comer actually bragged just last week about what a good source Luft is. “He’s very credible, and the people on MSNBC who made fun of me when I said we had an informant that was missing, they should feel like fools right now,” he told Newsmax on Thursday. “This is their worst nightmare.”

“We feel that this is a very credible witness. We feel that this is someone that we need to talk to in our investigation,” Comer said.

Except, that investigation is careening off the rails. The charges against Luft are just the latest spanner in the works. Multiple Republicans have admitted they don’t know if key evidence even exists, while Comer has said he doesn’t know if that evidence is “legit.”

Other members of the GOP are begging more informants to come forward, while Senator Chuck Grassley accidentally revealed that the investigation isn’t really about turning up the truth.