CNN’s Abby Phillip on Tuberville: ‘Straight-Up Racism From a Sitting U.S. Senator’

CNN anchor Abby Phillip said Sunday on “Inside Politics” that Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) comments about crime were “straight-up racism from a sitting United States senator.”

Partial transcript as follows:

PHILLIP: I want to switch gears just a little bit, but this is important and it speaks to what you were saying, Astead, about racist stereotypes. Here is Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville talking about crime and reparations, and you’ll see what the connection he makes it on that.

TUBERVILLE: Some people say, well, they’re soft on crime. No, they’re not soft on crime. They’re pro-crime, they 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. Bullshit! They are not owed that!

PHILLIP: I mean, just straight-up racism from a sitting United States senator! But really talking to white voters about their own preconceived notions of Black people being responsible for crime and not deserving anything as a result.

BARRÓN-LÓPEZ: Right. And they being the Democrats who, you know, are supportive of this supposed Black crime, which, as you said, I mean, there’s no other way to look at that and listen to that and say that, that it isn’t racist. I mean, it is racist. But one thing is that, again, this as well as the Herschel Walker element, it’s all playing to this majority white base. If you look at what determines whether someone is Republican now, it tends to be whether they’re white and, you know, whether they’re, how religious they are and what type of religion do they subscribe to.

PHILLIP: And their education level as well, strong…

BARRÓN-LÓPEZ: So, you know, the Republicans are playing to this predominantly white evangelical Protestant base. And they believe that because, again, this all comes down to power. It’s not really about abortion, and it comes down to the fact that they’re okay with their elected officials either saying racist things or potentially paying for an abortion because they want their people in power instead of Democrats.

PHILLIP: It’s really sad state of affairs.

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