[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 118 (Tuesday, July 11, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S2292]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           White Nationalism

  Mr. President, now, on White nationalism, for the past few months, 
the senior Senator from Alabama has embarked on a one-man mission to 
excuse and even defend the meaning of White nationalism. He did it back 
in May when he bemoaned efforts in our military to root out dangerous 
White nationalism from our records:

       I call them Americans.

  Those were his words, his words.
  A week later, he was asked to clarify his comments, and here is how 
he replied:

       What is a White nationalist?

  You would think he would learn, from the overwhelming negative 
reaction he has received from one end of the country to the other--that 
he would learn from that reaction and might maybe modify his comments, 
but no.
  Last night, given another chance to clear the air, he suggested that, 
no, White nationalists aren't inherently racist; that, yes, White 
nationalism is American; and that the definition of ``White 
nationalism'' is a matter of opinion.
  It is hard to believe that the Senator from Alabama has to be 
corrected again. The Senator from Alabama is wrong, wrong, wrong. The 
definition of ``White nationalism'' is not a matter of opinion. White 
nationalism--the ideology that one race is inherently superior to 
others; that people of color should be segregated, subjected, and 
relegated to second-class citizenship--is racist down to its rotten 
core.
  And for the Senator from Alabama to obscure the racist nature of 
White nationalism, it is indeed very, very dangerous. His words have 
power and carry weight with the fringe of his constituency--just the 
fringe. But if the fringe listens to him excuse and defend White 
nationalism, he is fanning the flames of bigotry and intolerance.
  Last week, the gunman who killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart was 
sentenced to 90 life terms in prison. He was a self-described White 
nationalist. The man who murdered 10 people at Tops Supermarket in my 
home State of New York, in Buffalo, was a White nationalist.
  And if those examples aren't clear enough, let's not forget 
Charlottesville, where neofascists, alt-right radicals, and far-right 
militias paraded through the streets, carrying torches and chanting: 
``Jews will not replace us.'' Those were White nationalists.
  This isn't a joke. This is deadly serious stuff. And for a Member of 
the U.S. Senate to speculate about what ``White nationalism'' means, as 
if it is some benign little thought experiment, is deeply and terribly 
disturbing.
  I urge my Republican colleagues to impress upon the Senator from 
Alabama the destructive impact of his words and urge him to apologize.