Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville held nothing back at a recent rally for former President Donald Trump. He was talking about crime, but that was simply code for Black Americans as criminals.
With just a week to go before early elections in the midterms, the GOP has pulled out all the stops. Nothing seems to be off limits, and crime appears to be the hot-button issue to rally their base. When it comes to talking about crime, they really mean Black people, who they love to claim are villains.
Tuberville's rant targeted the Democrats, who he claimed aren’t just “soft on crime” but “pro-crime,” he said at the Minden, Nevada, Trump rally on Saturday. Then he went after the Dems who support reparations for Black American descendants of slavery.
RELATED STORY: ‘Call a crackhead’: John Kennedy throws out the dog whistle, goes full GOP in new racist ad
“[Dems] want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that,” the first-term senator said.
As the Associated Press reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) found that overall crime rates have actually gone down since 2020, although the murder rate went up 29% during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, a press release from the FBI in 2021 found that over half of known offenders are white. So let’s cut the shit GOP: You’re not really concerned about crime in this nation, you’re worried about staying in power, and you’re blowing the racist dog whistle to do it.
In an effort to get Republican Adam Laxalt elected and unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Tuberville made the connection between crime and criminals (Black Americans).
Before turning to politics, as The Philadelphia Inquirer reports, Tuberville made millions in college football. While he was at the University of Cincinnati, he earned over $2 million annually off the backs of Black athletes who were paid nothing. Sound familiar? Like maybe the American industry of slavery?
Tom Moon, a columnist for Alabama Political Reporter, wrote on Twitter, “I mean, I’ve watched and listened to A LOT of old George Wallace speeches. You’d be hard pressed to find many that were worse than this. In 2022. Just disgusting.”
But Tuberville isn’t the only Republican beating the racist drum: Louisiana’s blustery turncoat with a fake Southern drawl and a penchant for MAGA election conspiracies, Sen. John Kennedy, had no issues in a recent campaign ad where he called out crime and blamed “woke leaders” and the criminals he called “crackhead.”
“A mom should not have to look over her shoulder when she's pumping gas. I voted against the early release of violent criminals, and I opposed defunding the police. Look, if you hate cops just because they're cops, the next time you get in trouble, call a crackhead.”
Kennedy’s ad is something straight out of the Republican playbook used most famously by President George H. W. Bush. When Bush campaigned in 1988, an ad he ran against his Democratic rival Michael Dukakis meant to convey Dukakis as soft on crime, featured convicted murderer Willie Horton.
Bush alleged Dukakis was a politician who supported furloughs for prisoners or weekend pass allowances—specifically the kind of pass that allowed Horton to kidnap a couple, then stab the man and rape his girlfriend. The ad set the tone for the “tough on crime” era, per The Takeaway.
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson also turned to crime as an issue in his campaign while running against Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, a Black Democrat. According to the Inquirer, Johnson ran an ad calling Barnes “different” and “dangerous” and sent out a mailer with a darker-looking Barnes just to make sure voters got the point.
The Inquirer additionally reports that the GOP has jumped in on the Pennsylvania race, implying that U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman’s tattoos, which mark his time as mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, are possibly gang-affiliated.
RELATED STORY: The U.S. will never move forward until we acknowledge our past and criminalize its denial
After an eruption of even more scandals among Republican Senate candidates, FiveThirtyEight’s Nathaniel Rakich returns to The Downballot this week to discuss the effect these sorts of scandals can have on competitive races; whether Democrats stand a chance to keep the House; and the different ways pollsters create likely voter models.
Embedded Content
With just a week to go before early elections in the midterms, the GOP has pulled out all the stops. Nothing seems to be off limits, and crime appears to be the hot-button issue to rally their base. When it comes to talking about crime, they really mean Black people, who they love to claim are villains.
Tuberville's rant targeted the Democrats, who he claimed aren’t just “soft on crime” but “pro-crime,” he said at the Minden, Nevada, Trump rally on Saturday. Then he went after the Dems who support reparations for Black American descendants of slavery.
RELATED STORY: ‘Call a crackhead’: John Kennedy throws out the dog whistle, goes full GOP in new racist ad
“[Dems] want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that,” the first-term senator said.
As the Associated Press reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) found that overall crime rates have actually gone down since 2020, although the murder rate went up 29% during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, a press release from the FBI in 2021 found that over half of known offenders are white. So let’s cut the shit GOP: You’re not really concerned about crime in this nation, you’re worried about staying in power, and you’re blowing the racist dog whistle to do it.
In an effort to get Republican Adam Laxalt elected and unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Tuberville made the connection between crime and criminals (Black Americans).
Before turning to politics, as The Philadelphia Inquirer reports, Tuberville made millions in college football. While he was at the University of Cincinnati, he earned over $2 million annually off the backs of Black athletes who were paid nothing. Sound familiar? Like maybe the American industry of slavery?
Tom Moon, a columnist for Alabama Political Reporter, wrote on Twitter, “I mean, I’ve watched and listened to A LOT of old George Wallace speeches. You’d be hard pressed to find many that were worse than this. In 2022. Just disgusting.”
But Tuberville isn’t the only Republican beating the racist drum: Louisiana’s blustery turncoat with a fake Southern drawl and a penchant for MAGA election conspiracies, Sen. John Kennedy, had no issues in a recent campaign ad where he called out crime and blamed “woke leaders” and the criminals he called “crackhead
“A mom should not have to look over her shoulder when she's pumping gas. I voted against the early release of violent criminals, and I opposed defunding the police. Look, if you hate cops just because they're cops, the next time you get in trouble, call a crackhead.”
Kennedy’s ad is something straight out of the Republican playbook used most famously by President George H. W. Bush. When Bush campaigned in 1988, an ad he ran against his Democratic rival Michael Dukakis meant to convey Dukakis as soft on crime, featured convicted murderer Willie Horton.
Bush alleged Dukakis was a politician who supported furloughs for prisoners or weekend pass allowances—specifically the kind of pass that allowed Horton to kidnap a couple, then stab the man and rape his girlfriend. The ad set the tone for the “tough on crime” era, per The Takeaway.
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson also turned to crime as an issue in his campaign while running against Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, a Black Democrat. According to the Inquirer, Johnson ran an ad calling Barnes “different” and “dangerous” and sent out a mailer with a darker-looking Barnes just to make sure voters got the point.
The Inquirer additionally reports that the GOP has jumped in on the Pennsylvania race, implying that U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman’s tattoos, which mark his time as mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, are possibly gang-affiliated.
RELATED STORY: The U.S. will never move forward until we acknowledge our past and criminalize its denial
After an eruption of even more scandals among Republican Senate candidates, FiveThirtyEight’s Nathaniel Rakich returns to The Downballot this week to discuss the effect these sorts of scandals can have on competitive races; whether Democrats stand a chance to keep the House; and the different ways pollsters create likely voter models.
Embedded Content