‘It Goes Both Ways Here’: Tommy Tuberville Defends Trump’s DoD Nominee Under Fire Over Past Tweets

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During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) questioned Anthony J. Tata, nominee to be Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, about his past tweets.

Transcript

00:00Senator Tuberville. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for both of you, Williston, to serve.

00:05Ms. Sutton, the President released the top line of his FY26 budget last week, and we look forward to

00:11learning all the details of the proposal in weeks ahead. We do know that this year's budget request

00:17for cyber operations will 14.5 billion, up 1 billion for the previous year. Given the rapid

00:24involvement of the landscape in cyber, do you believe this funding level is sufficient to meet

00:29our security needs? Senator, I share your concern with making sure we are balancing the resources

00:36available with the growing threat, as you indicated. One of the primary responsibilities, if confirmed

00:42in this role, is to review the budget and to certify that to ensure it's necessary. One of the things

00:49that is particularly unique about the cyber domain is that many of the capabilities are a software

00:54capability, and so investments in this domain can have a very immediate response into providing

01:01options for the President and Secretary and look forward to having the opportunity to highlight

01:06where we can better integrate this and perhaps shore up additional resources as needed.

01:10Mr. What role will cyber play in the future of possibly the Golden Dome?

01:14Senator, in my current role, I have not been involved in the specifics of that discussion,

01:20but I think that what we see with all of our weapon systems is the importance of building

01:25in cyber security from the beginning to make sure that as we put these capabilities out that

01:30we're able to defend them and that they're secure against what will be a very, um, uh, an attack

01:37surface that our adversaries will definitely look to exploit.

01:40Mr. Thank you. Mr. Tate, I reviewed your record. Public service, combat veterans,

01:44school superintendent, secretary of transportation, leading tens of thousands of military members and

01:50civil servants conducting complex missions. Anything you hadn't done?

01:53Mr. My goodness, uh, Mr. Senator, I appreciate that, uh, comment.

02:00Mr. Well, thank you for your service. But instead of exploring the experience, my colleagues seem

02:05to be focused on some things that you've said in the past, and I find this interesting given

02:08the last four years where a lot of the Democratic parties continue to call conservative Nazis,

02:14fascists, threats to democracy. You know, it goes both ways here. Uh, you know,

02:19the previous administration fully weaponized our justice system department to attack, punish

02:25their political opposition profile. Grandmothers are thrown into prison for peaceful protest.

02:30Uh, uh, just goes on and on. Out of curiosity, Mr. Tate, have you level, uh, label people you

02:37disagree with Nazis?

02:38Senator, I have not. Thank you. Have you ever weaponized your previous offices to punish

02:43your political opponent? Senator, I have not.

02:45I, I didn't think so. Uh, yesterday, Secretary Hastings announced a two-phase approach to

02:50reducing our top-level military. Phase one is a 20 percent reduction of active four-star

02:56generals and flag officers, as well as the 20 percent from the National Guard Bureau plea.

03:00Phase two will be an additional 10 percent. The Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness

03:04will be leading this initiative. Uh, I'm interested in your thoughts on this announcement.

03:09Senator, any time that we're talking about two-to-tail ratio, I think it's a good conversation.

03:15Uh, you know, the, the Secretary's comment about the number of generals, uh, uh, when we were

03:20in World War II versus the number we have today, I think is a, is a stark reminder that perhaps,

03:26uh, we've become a little bit of a bureaucracy. And so, uh, but he talked about a methodical

03:31and measured way of going about finding, uh, the force structure realignment that would

03:37allow for the reductions he's talking about.

03:39Thank you. Can you, can we expect a complimentary effort to reduce the real bloat at OSD and

03:46joint staff, which have increased by two to five times respectively over the last 25 years,

03:52while our total force numbers have decreased?

03:55Senator, I, if confirmed, I, I would work with you and the rest of this committee on, uh,

04:00optimizing, uh, the workforce and, and, uh, the military.

04:04Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

04:06Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

04:07Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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