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…
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