- Tommy Tuberville made remarks about "reparation" at a Trump rally that were widely condemned as racist.
- But he insists that he wasn't talking about reparations for slavery, and was instead talking about crime.
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama is insisting that his controversial comments last month about "pro-crime" Democrats wanting "reparation" for criminals were not about race or slavery, and is rejecting calls for him to apologize.
"I probably should have put it in a better way," Tuberville told Insider at the Capitol on Thursday. "To me, reparation means that people think they deserve something. It has nothing to do with with slavery or anything like that."
Tuberville faced withering criticism after making the remarks at an October 8 rally with former President Donald Trump in Nevada that were widely condemned as racist.
"No, they're not soft on crime, they're pro-crime," Tuberville said of Democrats. "They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you've got. They want to control what you have. They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that. Bullshit!"
The comments were seen as equating criminals with the Black descendants of slaves, particularly given an ongoing national conversation about whether the United States government should offer some form of reparations for slavery.
—Acyn (@Acyn) October 9, 2022
Following Tuberville's remarks, NAACP President Derrick Johnson issued a statement calling the senator's comments "flat out racist, ignorant and utterly sickening."
The Alabama senator's office issued a statement seeking to explain the comments over a week after they were first made, saying they were about "crime, not race."
But Tuberville was largely dismissive of the controversy when asked about it by Insider on Thursday.
"Of course the media took it and ran with that, talking about racism," he said. "You know, only racists talk about racism. You know, I've worked with minorities all my life. You know, a lot of my best friends are, you know, black, red — it doesn't make a difference."
He insisted that he was talking about reparations for criminals and claimed that who commit crimes are being seen as "victims."
"The criminals are looked at as victims, you know, and we're not putting enough of them in jail. We're not holding them accountable," he said. "And there's been a lot of groups out there that said you know, we want to use this as reparation, and that's the reason I brought that up."
Pressed on his use of the term "reparation," he continued to insist it was not a reference to slavery, which he said is "way past us."
"I didn't mean it towards that. I just mean it had — they, they think they deserve it," he said.
"It has nothing to do with with slavery or anything like that," he continued. "You know, that's way past us."
Asked if he'd sought to reach out to the NAACP or other groups to clarify his remarks, he rejected the idea.
"I've had several of them say I should apologize," he said. "I'm not apologizing for something I didn't talk about, you know, they can think reparation means just something, but reparation to me is a payback for something they think their owed."
He added, "I don't look at color."
Tuberville also rejected the idea that he should reach out to Black political leaders in Alabama — roughly 27% of Tuberville's constituents are Black or African American, according to the US Census — and referenced his time as a football coach at Auburn university
"I've talked to a lot of people that know me, and they said 'they got on you pretty good, coach,'" he said. "I'd like to talk to them. Of course, they don't — you know, they look at me different."