Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron
© REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstKentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron
Author and liberal journalist Sophia A. Nelson has set off a firestorm of accusations after calling black Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron multiple slurs, which she says she's allowed to say because she's mixed race.

"Uncle Tom. Step & fetch, Negro. The end," Nelson tweeted in reaction to Cameron's announcement that a former cop involved in the shooting of Breonna Taylor would not be facing murder charges, but rather three counts of "wanton endangerment." It's a decision that has set off violent protests in Louisville, Kentucky and several other major cities.

Nelson, a frequent guest on CNN and writer for the Daily Beast, doubled down on the tweet on Thursday by reposting it to her followers.

sophia a nelson tweet
After an onslaught of criticism calling her racist for using the terms against a black person she disagrees with, Nelson deleted the tweet. However, she went on to defend it and claim she could not be intimidated by "right wing bully bigots."

"For you right wing bully bigots step off. You don't scare me! You can't get me 'fired' for my views, and free speech," she wrote in one tweet.

Nelson defended her language in several other tweets, reusing the slurs to describe Cameron.

"Let me be clear this tweet stays. 'Negro' is a word that black people like my parents and grandparents were called up until the 1960s. It's on my birth certificate in 1967. And 'step & fetch' is what #DanielCameron is for #MitchMcConnell," she wrote.

Nelson also claimed she is "allowed to call someone an Uncle Tom" and to use the term "negro."

The CNN pundit's take on the Breonna Taylor case and Cameron, however, has still earned plenty of pushback.

"It's rather telling that she is convinced there are no consequences to this open bigotry because of the party affiliation of who she aimed it at," media critic AG Hamilton tweeted.

In another tweet, Hamilton referred to Nelson as a "CNN contributor," and a representative for the network created distance between them and the pundit (whose header image on Twitter is her on CNN).

"She is NOT a CNN contributor. She does NOT work for us. Correct your tweet," CNN head of strategic communications Matt Dornic tweeted.


Nelson has been a guest on CNN before multiple times and her Twitter account describes her as a "frequent CNN legal and political pundit."

"This is who CNN brings on the air, she is talking about Attorney General Cameron. We knew the network was incompetent and biased, now we can add virulently racist," Federalist writer David Marcus also wrote in reaction to Nelson's tweets.




Following the pushback and promise not to back down or be "scared," Nelson protected her Twitter account on Thursday afternoon, so now only followers approved by her can see her tweets.