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In late July, as Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blockade continued, retired two-star Marine Gen. Arnold Punaro struggled to contain his disgust for the Alabama Republican. The retired general, who also worked as longtime staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Politico that the right-wing senator is “a coward,” who “doesn’t understand our military.”
The senator continues to take steps to prove Punaro right.
Over the weekend, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said that Tuberville is “paralyzing” the military. In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the conservative Texas Republican went on to say, in reference to the GOP senator’s radical blockade, “I think that is a national security problem and a national security issue.”
Asked for his reaction, the Alabaman told reporters yesterday, in reference to McCaul, “I enjoyed watching his enthusiasm, but he wasn’t quite up on his facts.”
Soon after, Tuberville proved that he’s the one who isn’t quite up on his facts. Politico reported:
Sen. Tommy Tuberville told reporters he assumed that Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley would stay on past his Oct. 1 retirement date until there’s a Senate-confirmed replacement. When informed that, by law, Milley will have to leave his post on that date, Tuberville responded: “He has to leave? He’s out. Get somebody else to do the job.”
It was a rather remarkable exchange. The coach-turned-politician, who has no background in the military and no record of public service before getting elected to the Senate, apparently assumed that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs would just stick around for a while as Tuberville’s blockade continued.
If the Republican lawmaker had done his homework — getting up to speed on the details of his own dangerous efforts — the senator would know that Gen. Milley’s term, as a statutory matter, ends on Oct. 1.
Given these inflexible circumstances, "He has to leave?" was the wrong question for Tuberville to ask — especially as he accuses a fellow Republican of not being “up on his facts.”
It led Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, to write via social media, “Sen. Tuberville never served and frankly, doesn’t know what in the hell he’s talking about.” The New Jersey Democrat added that the Republican’s Senate holds “hurt our national security and play into the hands of our adversaries.”
Whether Tuberville understands any of this remains an open question.
As for the senator’s contention that someone should “get somebody else to do the job” of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, there’s already a qualified nominee in place who has broad support. Everyone is simply waiting for Tuberville to get out of the way.