Copyright AL.com
The hosts of MSNBC show Morning Joe on Wednesday reacted to U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s, R-Ala., recent comments on Alabamians losing SNAP benefits as the government shutdown continues. The show’s panel expressed shock and outrage at Tuberville’s stance that “a lot of young men that are on SNAP that should be working.” “I don’t know that he knew a lot about football, given his overall coaching record,” veteran columnist Mike Barnicle said. “But I do know that he knows very little about American culture, American employment, and how the Congress ought to operate.” Tuberville told reporters this week that “Democrats are getting a little bit tight right now.” “It’s their constituents, a lot of them, in some of these inner cities, that are going to need SNAP to survive, and they’re getting a lot of calls,” he said. Morning Joe co-host and former U.S. Representative Joe Scarbrough said Tuberville’s stance showed “the ignorance of a lot of these Republican leaders.” “They think that they’re ‘owning the libs’ when in fact, it’s their constituents who disproportionately take from the government,” Scarbrough said. “It’s his people that are just going to be completely hammered by [a loss of] SNAP benefits.” On Monday, the Alabama Department of Human Resources, which administers SNAP, said food stamps will be suspended in November. About 15% of the state’s population (roughly 750,000 people) is enrolled in the program, which provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget so they can afford the nutritious food essential to health and well-being. “There are a lot of good people in Alabama that need Medicaid, that need SNAP benefits, and a lot of them are people that voted for Donald Trump,” Scarbrough continued. “That’s the ignorance of all this.”
