Donald Trump’s nominee to become the Pentagon's third-ranking official is presently racing through his Twitter feed to delete tweets just as fast as he can.
Retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, who has been tapped to run the Department of Defense's policy shop, apparently had a habit of tweeting out Islamophobic remarks and racist conspiracy theories that often focused on former President Barack Obama. But after CNN's KFile unearthed a cache of 2018 tweets in which Tata called Obama a "Muslim" and a "terrorist leader" who tried to "subvert U.S. national interests to Islam," Tata's been a busy beaver.
As KFile continues to publicize Tata's inflammatory tweets, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday joined a handful of his colleagues in opposing Tata's nomination.
A spokesman for Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed told Politico that Reed's policy is usually to wait for the hearing to make his views known. But not in Tata's case. Here, said Chip Unruh, "there are real warning signs flashing and if this nomination moves forward, Senator Reed will oppose it."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was a bit more blunt. "An Islamophobic conspiracy theorist who called President Obama a 'terrorist leader' should not be #3 at the Pentagon," she told CNN. "Anthony Tata is by far Trump's most unqualified & ill-suited senior defense nominee -- a high bar."
Among Tata's most recently excavated gems is a July 2018 retweet of a Washington Times article calling Obama the "Manchurian Candidate," a reference to a '50s-era novel that depicts an American soldier getting brainwashed into acting against U.S. interests on behalf of foreign adversaries. In other words: Obama's a traitor.
"America really did have a Manchurian Candidate in The White House for eight years," read the Washington Times op-ed, claiming the "deviousness of the Obama sedition runs deep."
But hey, let's not be subtle. In spring 2018, Tata just came right out and accused Obama and Hillary Clinton of treason. Quote tweeting another tweet, Tata wrote, "If true, and it appears to be, #Obama and #Clinton are guilty of sedition and/or treason 18 U.S. Code 2384."
And then there's this classy tweet in July 2018 at former CIA director John Brennan: "Might be a good time to pick your poison: firing squad, public hanging, life sentence as prison b*tch, or just suck on your pistol. Your call. #Treason #Sedition #crossfirehurricane #Obamagate."
Sounds like just the type of clear, measured thinking we need at the Department of Defense on issues ranging from national security and defense strategy to nuclear deterrence.
Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Gary Peters of Michigan, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York all also told CNN they will oppose Tata's nomination.