Republican Nebraska state senator John McCollister on Monday stood by statements he made on Twitter over the weekend blasting his party for "enabling white supremacy in our country" and calling on the state's all-GOP congressional delegation to speak out against President Trump's inflammatory comments about minorities.
McCollister, a moderate Republican from Omaha, made the comments in a series of six tweets Sunday evening in response to the shootings in Ohio and Texas that left 31 dead. Officials have said the suspect in the El Paso, Texas, shooting posted an online diatribe against immigratns before that shooting in a Walmart.
"We have a Republican president who continually stokes racist fears in his base," he said in one of his comments posted on Twitter on Sunday evening. McCollister stood by the comments Monday. "Just the fact that it’s continuing to happen. I think that’s (the tweets) the proper response," he told 6 News.
McCollister says he's not suggesting that all Republicans are white supremacists and is not saying that the average Republican is racist.
McCollister says the shooting was a "tipping point" for him to call out his party, although he doesn't plan to leave it. "I’m a lifelong member of the Republican Party — in fact, my family has been involved in party politics in Nebraska for 50 years," he says. "In fact, my dad was in the House and went to the White House and persuaded Nixon to resign, so it’s been in our family for that length of time."
McCollister is the son of former Nebraska U.S. Rep. John Y. McCollister, a Republican who served from 1971-1977.
Nebraska is not immune to the sort of violence seen over the weekend, he said. "It happens anywhere in the country, even in Nebraska," he told 6 News. "I think back to the Von Maur incident, though I don’t think it was prompted by any white supremacy activity. But that is something that is occurring throughout the entire country, and I think we need to guard against that in Nebraska as well."
The response on social media has been somewhat surprising, McCollister said Monday morning. The number of followers on his Twitter account has risen from 650 to more than 10,000 as of 12:30 p.m. Monday.
"The response has been overwhelming," he said. "Yes, I’ve gotten a couple negative comments, but not as many as I expected to receive."