Washington, DC – Attention on Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and his defense of white nationalists should be viewed in a larger context of the Republican Party’s growing embrace and mainstreaming of white nationalist rhetoric, tactics, lies and conspiracies, America’s Voice said today.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“Republicans’ embrace and defense of white nationalism and related lies and conspiracies unfortunately goes deeper than Sen. Tommy Tuberville. Just look at the relentless set of anti-immigrant falsehoods, and dangerous conspiratorial rhetoric, that House Republicans have been advancing. Anti-immigrant politicians are increasingly comfortable using the language that white nationalists use and so far, Republican leaders and right-wing media have scarcely challenged them.
Thankfully, there is growing attention and pushback to the disinformation and dangerous white nationalist rhetoric, including the important comments from leading congressional Democrats on display at yesterday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing. We should be having a policy debate about solutions and the right ways to fix a broken immigration system – not dangerous lies, disinformation, and conspiracies.”
Some Members of Congress are pushing back on anti-immigrant colleagues’ reliance on dangerous white nationalist conspiracies and disinformation. During yesterday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing, ostensibly focused on immigrants and crime as part of the effort to impeach the Homeland Security Secretary, Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX), Rep. Pramilia Jayapal (D-WA), and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) were among the Members offering forceful denunciations of the falsehood at the heart of the hearing. They called out Members of Congress who have been mainstreaming dangerous lies and white nationalist conspiracies around “invasion” and “replacement,” noting that we have seen the real world dangers of advancing these lies in places such as El Paso (see a video clip summary of their remarks at this Tweet thread here).
Meanwhile, near daily examples of Republicans’ reliance and use of white nationalist conspiracy rhetoric continues to appear. For example, in a House Financial Services committee hearing yesterday, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) asserted we have “an invasion at the border” (see more here).
In analysis posted to the America’s Voice blog, “It’s Not Just Tuberville, the GOP’s White Nationalist Problem Runs Much Deeper,” America’s Voice Political Director Zachary Mueller summarizes findings from his ongoing GOP tracking work to highlight Republicans’ ongoing role in normalizing dangerous white nationalist conspiracies on “invasion” and “replacement.” As Mueller’s tracking details about the 118th Congress:
- 33 Members of the 118th Congress have employed the “invasion” conspiracy in their official capacity 81 times.
- Seven pieces of legislation employing the “invasion” conspiracy theory have been introduced in the 118th Congress. 47 different members have co-sponsored at least one of these pieces of legislation.
- On June 22, 2023, by a vote of 219 – 208, the House voted to refer H.Res.503, the Biden impeachment resolution sponsored by Rep. Lauren Boebert, to the Committees even as it relied on the “invasion” conspiracy theory. All Republicans present voted yes, while all Democrats present voted no.
- Republicans have also made these white nationalist slogans a key part of their political and campaign rhetoric. This is in spite of the fact these same conspiracy theories have motivated multiple deadly domestic terrorist attacks, including Pittsburgh, El Paso, and Buffalo. America’s Voice has found more than 550 examples of elected Republicans and campaigns that amplified the “invasion” and “replacement” conspiracy theory in just over the one year since the white nationalist murder of 10 in a Buffalo supermarket.
In his latest column at The Daily Beast, “The GOP’s Going Full White Nationalist Even Sooner Than I Expected,” Wajahat Ali hits similar themes:
“One could easily dismiss these examples as the “fringe” of the GOP, but the truth is that the fringe, and white nationalist talking points, are now the mainstream … It brings me no joy to write any of this, because there’s a cost to mainstreaming hate. It’s always borne in the blood of marginalized communities. White supremacist terrorism is now the leading domestic terror threat in America. Their talking points are openly shared by conservative pundits, GOP politicians, and Trump.”
