During a Tuesday appearance on "The Benny Show" with Benny Johnson, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) discussed the recent murder of Mountain Brook native Ella Cook, who was killed on Brown University's campus by an unknown assailant over the weekend.
Tuberville told Johnson that Cook, a student at the Ivey League university, was personally targeted, likely because of her affiliation with Brown's College Republicans Club.
"One of the individuals killed at Brown University was from Mountain Brook, Alabama. A young lady named Ella Cook," Tuberville noted. "She was a Republican leader in the school’s college Republican club at Brown University. You can't tell me she wasn't targeted. I would hate to miss the opportunity to say that, because the circumstances here are very, very fishy."
The lawmaker expressed frustration with the lack of accountability and willingness from colleges to help ensure student safety, something he says will be addressed in the near future.
"But at the end of the day, nobody really pays a price for this. I've been on campuses all my life, 35 years, I was a college football coach, and more and more of these things are continuing to happen, and we're going to have to force the hand of these people that run these universities," Tuberville said.
"I'm getting ready, hopefully, to be the governor in the state of Alabama, and we're going to have to do something where, for every 20 or 30 students on campus [security is proportionately increased]. These universities are making tons of money. We have to have security for those people."
Tuberville argued that Democrats are currently more focused on protecting Venezuelan drug traffickers in the Caribbean than college students like Cook across the country.
"We have to ensure the safety of the young people on these campuses because they are a target," said Tuberville. "They are easily accessible."
"It just amazes me that the Democrats are worried more about the drug dealers than they are about people who are killing people here in our country," he added.
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