Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville on Thursday, telling reporters in Washington “his actions are dangerous.”

The criticism comes a day after the top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, refused to support Tuberville’s strategy of placing a hold on military promotions to overturn a Pentagon policy making abortion more accessible to service members.

Related: Tuberville on white nationalists in the military: ‘I call them Americans’

Schumer’s assessment extended to Tuberville’s comments on a Birmingham radio station earlier this week regarding white nationalists serving in the military. Asked in an interview on WBHM if he believed white nationalists should be allowed to serve in the military, Tuberville responded “That’s what (the Biden administration) calls them. I call them Americans.”

On Thursday, Schumer said, “Our colleague from Alabama is dragging us down,” according to a tweet by Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio.

The Hill newspaper in Washington quoted Schumer, a Democrat from New York, at length regarding Tuberville.

“Does Sen. Tuberville honestly believe that our military is stronger with white nationalists in its ranks?” Schumer said, according to The Hill. “I cannot believe this needs to be said, but white nationalism has no place in our armed forces and no place in any corner of American society, period, full stop, end of story.

“I urge Sen. Tuberville to think about the destructive spectacle he is creating in the Senate. His actions are dangerous.”

Schumer also described Tuberville’s comments on white nationalists in the military as “utterly revolting,” The Hill reported.

It’s unusual for Senate leaders to so harshly criticize colleagues publicly, given that the Senate is generally considered more reserved and collegial than the House of Representatives.

In an interview Thursday with Julie Tsirkin of NBC News, Tuberville was asked if he wanted to clarify his comments about white nationalists in the military.

“The Democrats characterize all MAGA Republicans in the military as white nationalists,” Tuberville told Tsirkin, who posted a partial transcript of the interview on Twitter. “Wrong. OK, we can’t get politics in the military. This has nothing to do with extremists and all that this, you know, my first day here was Jan. 6 (2021, the day of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol), had several senators stand up on the Senate floor saying to me, ‘We’ve got too many white nationalists. I mean, what the heck is that? We’ve all got different beliefs. You know, I’m a church Christ, Catholics, we’ve got different people. And we all have to make one military. We can’t start distinguishing different types of people, OK? That’s all I’ve got to say.”

While Tuberville said Democrats defined white nationalists as “all MAGA Republicans in the military,” concern rose at the Pentagon during the Trump administration about the influence of white nationalists in the military. A Defense Department report, released in October 2020, said extremism in the military was a “threat,” according to a report by CQ Roll Call.

A Pentagon press release a week after the Jan. 6 insurrection in the final days of the Trump presidency included the headline, “No place in DOD for extremism, white supremacy, officials say.”

“DOD policy expressly prohibits military personnel from actively advocating supremacist, extremist or criminal gang doctrine, ideology or causes,” a quote in the press release said.

In the interview with NBC News, Tuberville asked Tsirkin to define a white nationalist.

“A white nationalist propagates Nazism, a white nationalist could be someone who doesn’t believe Black and Brown people are equals,” Tsirkin responded, according to her transcript.

“A white nationalist is a Nazi?” Tuberville responded, according to the transcript.

“Well, that could be one of their beliefs — a white supremacist,” Tsirkin said.

“I don’t look at it like that,” Tuberville said.

According to Merriam-Webster, a white nationalist is “one of a group of militant white people who espouse white supremacy and advocate enforced racial segregation.”

In a statement to AL.com on Wednesday, a Tuberville spokesperson said, “Sen. Tuberville’s quote that is cited shows that he was being skeptical of the notion that there are white nationalists in the military, not that he believes they should be in the military. He believes the men and women in uniform are patriots.”

In another tweet relating to McConnell opposing the hold of military nominations, Desiderio reported this exchange between Tuberville and reporters Thursday:

“Everybody’s got their opinion,” Tuberville said of McConnell’s decision not to back him on military holds.

“But he’s your leader,” a reporter responded, referring to the fact that McConnell is the Senate Minority Leader.

“Not on this he’s not,” Tuberville responded. “I am. I’m the one who’s got the holds.”

Tuberville also said that McConnell has not spoken to him about the holds.