Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville seems to have finally found a vocal ally in his war against military readiness: Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah. Tuberville has single-handedly blocked more than 300 military promotions and nominations, for over six months, and justifiably received criticism from all corners of the government for this unpopular position. Lee took time away from retweeting COVID-19 misinformation to throw his ignorant hat into the ring, attacking Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and the entire Pentagon.
Lee first told Lloyd, “Stop funding abortion travel. And stop demonizing @SenTuberville for calling you out.” He followed that up by writing, “It’s time to de-fund @SecDef.” He escalated this big idea by tweeting that “Pentagon leaders” had stopped “fighting America’s enemies” and were now attacking Americans like Tuberville, ending with a flourish that these Pentagon leaders were “[w]aging war on American babies It’s time to cut Pentagon funding.”
The Utah senator’s comments came after the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force penned an op-ed criticizing Tuberville for placing a “blanket hold on all general and flag officer nominees,” since these are traditionally “apolitical officials,” turning the process into a partisan attack that undermines the country’s national defense. Tuberville’s response was to make a few press appearances where he lobbed the vague accusation that the military had gone “woke.”
Now Lee says he didn’t say what he said.
RELATED STORY: Sen. Tuberville says 'woke' military has 'people doing poems on aircraft carriers'
On Sept. 8, The Salt Lake Tribune, one of the largest newspapers in Lee’s state, wrote a story about Lee’s attacks on the military and the Pentagon in particular. The subheadline read, “Lee, without evidence, accused Pentagon officials of spreading misinformation about a U.S. senator.” This led Lee to tweet out how this is all fake news and that he called for the defunding of only Secretary Austin, and asked the Trib to correct the article.
I’m not sure what defunding a person in the government looks like, but maybe Lee did call for only—
Whoops. There are reasons one might have cause to question the Pentagon’s budgetary demands—but this ain’t it. As of the writing of this story, The Salt Lake Tribune has issued one correction on their original story: “The spelling of Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro’s name has been corrected.”
There’s really only one reaction to Lee that needs to be posted here.
Tell Tommy Tuberville: Stop endangering national security
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Sen. Tuberville makes openly racist remarks on Don Jr.'s web show
A majority of Alabama voters want Tuberville to end his blockade of military promotions
Why does it seem like Republicans have such a hard time recruiting Senate candidates who actually live in the states they want to run in? We're discussing this strange but persistent phenomenon on this week's edition of "The Downballot." The latest example is former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, who's been spending his time in Florida since leaving the House in 2015, but he's not the only one. Republican Senate hopefuls in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Montana, and Wisconsin all have questionable ties to their home states—a problem that Democrats have gleefully exploited in recent years. (Remember Dr. Oz? Of course you do.)