GOP senator's rant on military's 'rapid growth' gets brutal fact check
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) ranted during Pentagon nominee Pete Hegseth's confirmation hearing against the expansion of the military bureaucracy, but he left out some key context.
The Alabama Republican, who infamously blocked military promotions for months to protest a Pentagon rule on service members seeking abortion care, complained during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about the number of civilian employees working for the Department of Defense over the past quarter century, according to MSNBC's Hayes Brown.
“According to the Pentagon, between 2001 and 2024 the number of civilian employees in the Office of the Secretary of Defense has nearly doubled from 1,500 to 3,000 civilians," Tuberville said. "On the Joint Chiefs, the number has increased from 191 to almost 1,000. Our military end strength goes down. Our staff numbers are exploding.”
ALSO READ: Fox News has blood on its hands as Trump twists the knife
However, the college football coach-turned-senator failed to note that particular period coincided with the start of the global war on terror presided over by George W. Bush following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"Since this isn’t clear to Tuberville, I have to point out that the starting point for that rapid growth came after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent launch of the war on terror," Brown said. "It was a time that saw the use of federal contractors explode as American forces expanded abroad. So if Tuberville is really mad, he should be in favor of cutting the Defense Department’s budget to slim down the number of civilians at the Pentagon."
Brown's colleague Ja'han Jones flagged another remark by Tuberville for a fact check.
"Relatedly, Tuberville tried mightily to blame diversity, equity and inclusion efforts for what he suggested is a crisis in military recruitment," Jones said. "Many Republicans have used this claim to suggest DEI measures are preventing people from joining the military, even though they haven’t provided a shred of evidence to support it. And it’s worth noting, too, that military recruitment has rebounded recently."