WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined Mornings with Maria to discuss the Biden administration’s misplaced defense priorities as the Senate prepares to vote on the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (FY23 NDAA). Senator Tuberville emphasized the importance of projecting strength and rejecting weak and woke policies.
Excerpts from Senator Tuberville’s interview can be found below, and the full interview can be found here.
ON ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR UKRAINE:
“We’re getting intel that they’re going to be more of a missile war than a ground war. And so, they need to be protected, but there’s a lot of questions with this. First of all, do we have enough to give? We’ve got them all over NATO. It takes a lot of training, Maria, to do this, and we do not need to send our people in there running these machines. Hopefully, it’s a quick process but it’s not a quick process to train on these Patriots.”
“This is going to get ugly, Putin’s not going to sit back and let up on Ukraine, he’s going to let them have it. And if this will help, we’re all for it but we got to do it the right way.”
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PASSING THE NDAA:
“We passed the NDAA and in [committee] meetings back in June. They use it up here as a political ploy. They’ve been wanting to just load things down Maria with it that is non-defense. This is something that should have been done three months ago. We should have put some kind of clause in there for inflation. If we don’t have defense of this country, we’re in a huge problem. And as you said earlier, China is sprinting, out sprinting us, to the finish line in space, in the ground, on the sea, in the air, and we’re sitting back watching it happen. We’ve got to make our mind up if we want to protect the American people with this administration or are we going to worry about all these woke agenda priorities that they have. This is the most important thing going right now – the defense of our country in defense of our allies.”
“[Republicans are] in the minority. Leader Schumer is a guy that – he uses politics at every angle, and he knows that the NDAA is important to the Republicans and that he could pretty much get what he wants on that. But we’ve held his feet to the fire. McConnell has told him, ‘Hey, clean this thing up. We’re not voting for all this crap that they put on there.’ So hopefully, we can get more done, and quicker, next year.”
ON THE PRIORITIES OF THE BIDEN ADMIN AND TOP MILITARY OFFICIALS:
“It’s typical this administration speaks out both sides of its mouth – you know, they’re putting all kinds of regulations on our defense contractors making these missiles and defense missiles. And they want to study the impact of bombs on the environment.”
“We need to have a killing machine, and people across the seas that are our adversaries need to understand that. Lloyd Austin needs to understand it. Our generals, General Milley, everybody in the military needs to understand it. We need to step up our game. We’re not stepping up our game other than the fact of worrying about all these woke policies that they want to put in the military, teaching CRT, kicking people out because of the vaccine mandates. Our recruiting is atrocious in the military right now. Why would you get in the military if you’re treated, like that? A lot of these young people don’t want to be involved in it.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, and HELP Committees.
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