Former CIA Director Suggests Support For Assassination Of GOP Senator
As Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) continues to hold up unanimous consent confirmations of military promotions in response to the Pentagon allowing the use of taxpayer funds for service members’ abortion trips, former CIA Director Michael Hayden posted on social media that he would support an effort to “remove” Tuberville from “the human race.”
Ever since the Pentagon implemented a policy to provide travel allowances for service members seeking abortions in response to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and red states’ subsequent abortion restrictions, Tuberville has been holding up military promotions. However, the Senate could get around his stonewalling by simply holding votes on the promotions one at a time — as Tuberville is only preventing unanimous consent for mass confirmations.
In a Monday post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Nathalie Jacoby asked users whether Tuberville should “be removed from his committee.”
Hayden responded to the post with a shocking statement.
“How about the human race?” he wrote, which suggests he meant Tuberville should be “removed” from existence.
Critics were quick to condemn Hayden’s comment — noting that he was appearing to support the assassination of a sitting Republican senator.
“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. Hayden, a renowned civil liberties violator, promoted the Biden laptop coverup and the Russia collusion scam,” The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway wrote in a post on X.
“There’s always a lot of talk about ‘inciting violence’ and many argue speech that does so should be banned. I can’t recall a tweet that more explicitly and obviously advocates murder than this one from Bush/Cheney CIA and NSA Director, and current CNN contributor, @GenMHayden,” wrote independent journalist Glenn Greenwald.
On Tuesday, Hayden attempted to backtrack on his comments — claiming he meant that Tuberville should “not be considered a member of the human race” and blaming “MAGAnuts” for interpreting his comment exactly as it was written.
“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,” he wrote in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Tuberville responded to Hayden’s post in a statement shared on X.
Tuberville wrote:
“This morning my office was made aware of a statement made by General Michael Hayden calling for a politically motivated assassination. This statement is disgusting and it is repugnant to everything we believe in as Americans. Given General Hayden’s long career in Washington, he must have known that, by making such a statement, he was committing a serious crime. His own efforts today to reinterpret what he said are only a tacit admission of guilt. If we still have a nonpolitical justice system in this country, then General Hayden will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. My office has reported this incident to the Capitol Police and I expect that they will once again do an excellent job protecting members of Congress and bringing criminals to justice.”
He went on to call out his Democrat colleagues for not condemning Hayden’s comment — explaining that it “tells us everything we need to know about Democrats and their commitment to ‘Our Democracy.’”
Tuberville also slammed Hayden for presiding “over some of the biggest failures in the history of American intelligence” while in office — and pointed out that he had “actively participated in the Russia Hoax and lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop.”
