At left, a video screen grab shows former CIA Director retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden addressing cyber challenges during a discussion panel in September 2017. At right, Sen. Tommy Tuberville heads to the Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 21, 2023. Tuberville on Tuesday, Oct. 10, reported Hayden to the Capitol Police. (Defense Department and Stars and Stripes)
(Tribune News Service) — Sen. Tommy Tuberville said he reported former CIA Director Michael Hayden’s suggestion that he be removed from the “human race” to Capitol Police, claiming the “disgusting” remark called for his “politically motivated assassination.”
“Given Gen. Hayden’s long career in Washington, he must have known that, by making such a statement, he was committing a serious crime,” Tuberville said in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday afternoon.
“His own efforts today to reinterpret what he said are only a tacit admission of guilty,” Alabama’s senior senator continued. “If we still have a nonpolitical justice system in this country, then Gen. Hayden will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Hayden was asked Monday on X if Tuberville should be “removed” from his committees, including the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, over the Alabama senator’s freeze on military promotions.
“How about the human race?” Hayden answered.
Hayden said Tuesday he didn’t literally mean “removed” from the human race and is surprised anyone thought he did. “I was surprised to wake up this morning and discover that many MAGAnuts had lost their minds over my suggestion that ‘Coach’ Tuberville not be considered a member of the human race. I stand by that view. I’m wishing you all a nice day even the intransigent Tommy Tuberville.”
Meanwhile, the senator blasted Democrats for refusing to condemn Hayden’s “repugnant” remarks.
“This deafening silence tells us everything we need to know about Democrats and their commitment to ‘Our Democracy,’” Tuberville said. “In fact, Democrats have only continued to attack me by name today. Sadly, Gen. Hayden is just the latest in a long line of Washington Leftists who have endangered the reckless rhetoric against me over the past few months. This must stop and it must stop now.”
Tuberville also attacked Hayden’s record in public service, saying Hayden “presided over some of the biggest failures in the history of American intelligence, such as the Sept. 11 attacks and the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
“Furter, Gen. Hayden actively participated in the Russia Hoax and lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop to get Joe Biden elected president,” Tuberville’s statement continued.
He said Hayden “is in no position to criticize anyone as his credibility was destroyed long ago.”
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