{"id":56439,"date":"2020-07-22T15:25:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T15:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/07\/22\/two-hearings-set-on-troubled-pentagon-policy-nomination\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:09:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:09:42","slug":"two-hearings-set-on-troubled-pentagon-policy-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2020\/07\/22\/two-hearings-set-on-troubled-pentagon-policy-nomination\/","title":{"rendered":"Two hearings set on controversial Pentagon policy nominee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 The Senate Armed Services Committee has set an open hearing July 30 for Anthony Tata<\/a>, President Donald Trump\u2019s embattled pick for the Pentagon\u2019s top policy job \u2015 but that won\u2019t be the first time the committee gathers to hear from the nominee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tata, a Fox News contributor, staunch ally of the president and a retired Army brigadier general, has had to walk back a series of conspiratorial and controversial tweets after they were first reported by CNN<\/a>. Among them: calling President Barack Obama \u201ca terrorist leader,\u201d a history of Islamophobic comments and claiming that former CIA Director John Brennan wanted Trump overthrown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the open session, the panel will first meet July 28 to consider Tata\u2019s nomination in a closed session, a move typically used to review confidential investigative materials. Foreign Policy<\/a> first reported the two hearings were in the works earlier this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Kevin Cramer is the only Republican on the panel to announce his opposition to Tata, but for reasons unrelated to Tata\u2019s controversies. Cramer, of North Dakota, told the Washington Examiner<\/a> that he would oppose Tata unless the Pentagon ends its opposition to adding the names of 74 sailors who died aboard the U.S.S. Frank Evans<\/a> to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SASC Ranking Member Jack Reed<\/a>, D-R.I., and other<\/a> Democrats<\/a> on the panel have come out against the nomination, and it remains to be seen whether SASC Republicans\u2015with Sens. Thom Tillis, Martha McSally and Joni Ernst, in vulnerable reelection campaigns\u2015will vote to confirm him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Backing Tata could mean defending a presidential pick whose public statements have evinced intolerance to Islam at a time when the military and the rest of the country is reckoning with America\u2019s painful legacy of discrimination. Also, Tata retired from the military in 2009 after an Army inquiry found<\/a> that he conducted \u201cat least two\u201d adulterous affairs while serving, considered a crime by the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Trump has previously pulled other <\/a>Pentagon nominees<\/a> after their inflammatory public remarks surfaced, he has not budged on Tata, even after weeks of revelations <\/a>about his controversial comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SASC Chairman Jim Inhofe, who attended Trump\u2019s recent rally in Tulsa and received his endorsement for reelection, had previously planned to hold a meeting for Republicans to weigh support for the nomination and expressed concern. Inhofe appeared concerned about the nomination in a CNN interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to say it disqualifies him and we\u2019re not going to consider him, but I\u2019m saying that got our attention,\u201d said Inhofe, R-Okla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s also unclear is whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would provide a vote for Tata with limited time on the legislative calendar and more than a dozen judicial nominees waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closed hearing would be the panel\u2019s first for a nominee since Gen. John Hyten was considered for vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff amid sexual misconduct allegations. The panel heard from Hyten and others in closed session<\/a> and advanced him to Senate confirmation<\/a> after an Air Force probe found insufficient evidence to file charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

News of Tata\u2019s hearing comes days after Politico reported<\/a> the White House has effectively been skirting the the Senate confirmation process to install loyalists in acting senior roles. Weeks earlier, the Washington Post<\/a> reported that the White House has an intensifying effort to Pentagon personnel with an undisputed allegiance to the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, the White House announced<\/a> it had assigned Michael Kratsios, a 33-year-old White House chief technology officer, as the acting head of research and engineering for the the Defense Department. According to Politico, the administration has also discussed installing Tata in a different senior DoD role on an acting basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If the @DeptofDefense does not make significant changes to its policy, I plan to oppose Tata\u2019s nomination.

I hope to hear some positive news at his @SASCMajority hearing next week. https:\/\/t.co\/iOVxGh6vft<\/a><\/p>— Senator Kevin Cramer (@SenKevinCramer) July 21, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>