The U.S. military’s oath of enlistment and Congress’ oath of office begin the same way: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same … .” As the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol illustrated, white nationalism is a threat to the Constitution that both service members and federal lawmakers swear to defend.
When Sen. Tommy Tuberville was asked about enlisted white nationalists, he claimed they’d been wrongly labeled by the Biden administration. “I call them Americans,” he said.
But despite the Defense Department’s concern about the “potency of planned violent attacks” white nationalists with military training could launch, when Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala, was asked Monday about enlisted white nationalists, he claimed they’d been wrongly labeled by the Biden administration. “I call them Americans,” he said. The shockingly irresponsible response, from a senator who serves on the Armed Services Committee, is another example of Republicans playing with the fire that threatens to burn America down.
Four days before Tuberville’s remarks, four members of the Proud Boys, three of them U.S. military veterans, were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their roles in the attack on the Capitol. Another veteran and Proud Boys member was found “guilty of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and robbery involving government property.”
Similar examples abound. Five members of the Oath Keepers convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack were also veterans. The group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, is a former Army paratrooper. In January, three active-duty Marines were charged with breaching the Capitol. And the day after Tuberville tried to normalize white nationalism, a federal judge gave a four-year prison sentence to a former Navy reservist with a reported fondness for Hitler. Months earlier the judge had found him guilty of obstructing Congress’ counting of the electoral votes to certify the 2020 presidential election results.
Tuberville equated white nationalists with “Americans” in an interview Monday on a public radio station in Birmingham. Wednesday, in a statement to Al.com, a spokesperson offered a “clarification” of what the senator said:
“Sen. Tuberville’s quote that is cited shows that he was being skeptical of the notion that there are white nationalists in the military, not that he believes they should be in the military. He believes the men and women in uniform are patriots. Secretary Austin seems to think otherwise, subjecting them to extremism training as his very first act in office. That cost us four million man hours.”
It’s worth pointing out that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s first day in office was Jan. 22, 2021, just 16 days after some active-duty members, some reservists and many more veterans were in the mob that stormed the Capitol. Though it wasn’t clear at the time how many current or retired military members were involved, we did know already that Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, had stormed the Capitol. And been shot dead by a U.S. Capitol Police officer.
Mandating extremism training after an attempt to halt the peaceful transfer of power was what any defense secretary sincere about his oath to defend the Constitution would have done.
However, it may be even more important to point out that just a few months earlier — in October 2020; i.e., when Donald Trump was still president — members of Congress received a Pentagon report stating that “individuals with extremist affiliations and military experience are a concern to U.S. national security because of their proven ability to execute high-impact events.” A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee should know that. Instead, Tuberville released a statement suggesting that the threat of white nationalism in the military is something Austin, who just happens to be the country’s first Black defense secretary, concocted out of the blue. Mandating extremism training was what any defense secretary sincere about his oath to defend the Constitution would have done. According to the sentencing memo, Hatchet Speed, a former Navy reservist and member of the Proud Boys who was given four years Tuesday, told an undercover FBI officer last year that Hitler was “one of the best people that’s ever been on this earth.” Prosecutors wrote: “It is not clear why this military veteran with a [security] clearance became enamored with Hitler, began to embrace street fighting, and call for the execution of the country’s entire Jewish population.” What is clear is that our military leaders have a responsibility — actually, a duty — to figure out how such indoctrination begins and to prevent its spread throughout the military’s ranks. And the only responsible option for a senator is to support such work. It was only in January 2019 that then-Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, told The New York Times, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” Republican leadership appropriately condemned King’s remarks and stripped him of his committee assignments, and he lost his 2020 re-election bid in that year’s GOP primary. That seems like an eternity ago. Now a Republican senator says white nationalists in the military are mere Americans, and rather than apologize obsequiously, he follows with the argument that the military leaders calling out white nationalists are the problem.
Jarvis DeBerry is an opinion editor for MS NOW Daily. He was previously editor-in-chief at the Louisiana Illuminator and a columnist and deputy opinion editor at The Times-Picayune. 
