Ex-CIA chief accused of calling for Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s ‘assassination’
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden on Monday suggested that Sen. Tommy Tuberville be removed from the “human race” over his blockade of military confirmations.
The shocking suggestion from the retired US intelligence official came in response to a question from a user on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), who asked if Tuberville (R-Ala.) should be “removed from his committee.”
“How about the human race?” Hayden replied.
Some on social media accused the former top CIA official of calling for Tuberville’s “assassination.”
“Former CIA Director Michael Hayden calls for the assassination of Sen. Tuberville because the senator is performing desperately needed oversight of the U.S. Military,” Mollie Hemingway, editor in chief of the Federalist, said in a tweet.
“Them: The media and the deep state are not out to get Republicans, that’s a conspiracy theory. CNN National Security Analyst And Former Head Of The CIA Michael Hayden: Tommy Tuberville should be assassinated,” tweeted Logan Dobson, vice president of GOP strategy firm Targeted Victory.
Tuberville, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has for months blocked the speedy and bulk confirmations of hundreds of military officers up for key leadership roles in protest of a Pentagon policy that pays for troops’ out-of-state travel for reproductive services — including abortion and in-vitro fertilization.
Tuberville’s blockade prevents the Senate Armed Services Committee from quickly approving nominations by a unanimous vote, forcing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to send some promotions to the full Senate floor for votes.
A spokesman for Tuberville told NBC News over the weekend that the former Auburn University football coach isn’t planning on backing down from his blockade even amid Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel.
Hayden, a retired Air Force general who also served as director of the National Security Agency between 1999 and 2006, overseeing the agency’s domestic mass surveillance program, has taken shots at Tuberville in the past over his hold on military promotions.
“Tommy Tuberville is an idiot!“ Hayden tweeted in May 2022, in response to a video of the Alabama senator grilling Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on the US’s involvement in Ukraine’s efforts to rebuff Russia’s invasion.
“Tuberville absolutely is a racist,” Hayden said in another tweet last month, in response to a user asking if it is “wrong to call Sen. Tommy Tuberville a racist?”
Hayden was also among dozens of retired military and State Department officials to sign an open letter in August blasting Tuberville’s “reckless” protest.
“Risking our military’s planning and preparedness, and our national security to make a political point is far out of bounds,” the letter states. “The world is too dangerous to cede our leadership, which is why we urge Senator Tuberville swiftly end his blockade and to respect our nation’s service members and their families.”
Hayden was also one of the 51 former intelligence officials who attempted to discredit The Post’s 2022 report on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop by falsely claiming in an open letter that the first son’s emails were Russian disinformation
