Tommy Tuberville on latest white nationalist flub: 'I didn’t explain it well'

For the second time this year, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is being forced to explain his comments about white nationalists and white supremacy – and by his own admission, he's not doing it well.

It all began in May, when Tuberville said that he sees white nationalists as Americans and nothing more than "Trump Republicans."

Tuberville was speaking to a local radio station when he criticized President Joe Biden’s efforts to remove extremists from serving in the military.

“We are losing in the military so fast. Our readiness in terms of recruitment. And why? I’ll tell you why, because the Democrats are attacking our military, saying we need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists, people that don’t believe in our agenda, as Joe Biden’s agenda,” he told WBHM’s Richard Banks.

When explicitly asked about white nationalists, Tuberville explained: “They call them that. I call them Americans."

In the days that followed, Tuberville tried to explain away his comments that he was against racists, but he believed in nationalism, including white nationalism. Ultimately, he refused to talk about it anymore.

On Monday, CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked about the incident again, saying that there was never a straight answer about Tuberville. Once again, he explained that white nationalists weren't necessarily bad people.

Collins explained a white nationalist is someone who believes white people are superior to others.

“Well, that’s some people’s opinion," said Tuberville.

Collins explained that's the actual definition.

In the days that have followed, Tuberville has fumbled it again, maintaining that he doesn't support racism.

But on Wednesday, Tuberville told CNN's Manu Raju, “I didn’t explain it well.”

“Well, as I've said, for some reason, the Democrats — whether we're Christian or Republican or conservative or Trump supporters — ‘oh, they're all you know, they're all racists.’ That's totally false. And so that's the clarification," he said, according to Raju.

He was asked if white nationalists were racists and said, “sure they are. We don't need one group thinking they should be the only one in this country.”

Commentators spent much of Tuesday blasting Tuberville. "The View's" Whoopi Goldberg made it clear that as someone from Alabama, he knows what a white nationalist is.

"Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough lamented, "He still didn't say that white nationalists are racists, he says, 'Oh, if that's somebody's definition. But this guy has lived in the South for 50-something years — 55, 56, 57 years — he knows exactly what white nationalism is and he knows that white nationalists believe, that Black people and Hispanic people and anybody who's not white, they are inferior because of their race."