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House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul was surprisingly candid last week about one of his party’s most serious problems. “I think Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base,” the Texas Republican lamented.
Five days later, House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, echoed the sentiment, conceding that some of his GOP colleagues are peddling rhetoric that’s “directly coming from Russia.”
It was against this backdrop that right-wing Sen. Tommy Tuberville appeared on Newsmax yesterday to condemn U.S. aid to Ukraine as “waste.” The Alabama Republican added, in reference to Ukrainian leaders, “These people can’t buy any more houses than what they’ve bought. They’ve got beach houses all over the world.”
The idea that Ukrainian officials are buying luxury goods with American taxpayers’ money is not new. It’s also pro-Russia disinformation.
Making matters worse, of course, is the larger pattern involving the coach-turned-hapless-politician. Two years ago, the Alabaman insisted that Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine in order to acquire “more farmland,” because “he can’t feed his people.” The idea that Russia was incapable of feeding its population was plainly wrong. The GOP senator either didn’t know or didn't care.
In the months that followed, Tuberville repeatedly said Ukraine couldn’t prevail in a conflict against Russia — a line favored by the Kremlin — so it made sense for the United States to simply let Moscow prevail.
A couple of months ago, after Putin told Tucker Carlson he’s interested in “peace,” the Republican lawmaker suggested that Russia’s authoritarian leader deserved the benefit of the doubt. Tuberville argued soon after that it was the United States that “forced” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Around the same time, the Alabaman appeared on a radio show and said, “You can tell Putin’s on top of his game.” After complaining again that the United States was responsible for pushing Russia into a military offensive, Tuberville added in reference to Putin, “I can understand what he’s talking about.”
All of which leaves me with a lingering question: Why, exactly, is Tommy Tuberville still on the Senate Armed Services Committee?
Between his 2023 blockade that undermined his own country’s military, Tuberville’s ongoing disparagement of the American armed forces, his willingness to shift responsibility for the war in Ukraine away from Russia, and his newfound interest sharing absurdities about Ukrainian leaders, it’s hardly outlandish to think senators should have a conversation about whether it’s time to revisit his committee assignments.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.