Democrats urge controversial Pentagon policy nominee to withdraw

A group of 10 Senate Democrats are calling on President Trump’s controversial nominee for the Pentagon’s top policy post to withdraw from consideration ahead of his hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In a letter released Monday, the senators wrote to Anthony Tata urging him to withdraw his nomination to be under secretary of Defense for policy, as well as resign from his current post as a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

“Your record of offensive and inflammatory comments disqualifies you from serving in your current position and the position for which you have been nominated,” the Democrats wrote in the letter, dated Friday.

The letter was organized by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a Senate Armed Services Committee member, and co-signed by fellow committee Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).

The other signatories are Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

The letter comes before Tata’s public confirmation hearing scheduled for Thursday. The Senate Armed Services Committee is also planning to meet behind closed doors Tuesday to discuss the nomination.

The nomination of Tata, a retired Army brigadier general most known for his frequent guest appearances on Fox News, has been a flashpoint since CNN resurfaced several inflammatory and racist tweets Tata wrote about former President Obama and other Democratic politicians.

In 2018 tweets, for example, Tata called Obama a “terrorist leader” and said Islam is “most oppressive violent religion I know of.” He also called Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) a “vicious race baiting racist” and said she and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “have always been the same violent extremists.”

Tata has since deleted many of the offensive tweets. After CNN’s reports and after several Armed Services Democrats, including committee ranking member Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), came out in opposition to Tata’s nomination, he also penned a letter to Reed and committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) expressing regret at the tweets and calling them an “aberration in a four decade thread of faithful public service.”

But in their letter to Tata, the Democrats wrote that “multiple past statements cannot be dismissed simply as an aberration.”

“Your letter to committee leadership appears to be a conveniently timed retraction by someone who has suddenly realized his nomination is in jeopardy,” they wrote. “No one with a record of repeated, repugnant statements like yours should be nominated to serve in a senior position of public trust at the Pentagon. Your views are wholly incompatible with the U.S. military’s values.”

Tata could be confirmed without any Democratic support as nominees only require a simple majority to be confirmed.

At least one Republican has indicated he could oppose Tata, but not over the inflammatory tweets. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said in a statement last week he would oppose Tata unless the Pentagon changes its policy against adding the names of those who died in the 1969 USS Frank E. Evans ship collision to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.