Senate Hearing For Trump Pentagon Nominee Pulled Due To Islamophobic Comments

A Senate hearing to vote on the confirmation of a former general to a top Pentagon post was withdrawn on Thursday after Islamophobic comments emerged. Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata had been nominated by President Trump for undersecretary of policy for the Pentagon and had recently been under fire from Senate Democrats for his past comments.

Tata, a Trump supporter and frequent Fox News contributor, had been criticized for 2018 tweets in which he called Islam the “most oppressive violent religion I know of.” He also called former President Barack Obama a Muslim and a “terrorist leader.” The tweets were later deleted.

Rep. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., chair for the hearing committee, announced that hearing’s cancelation shortly before it was supposed to take place. It is unclear if Tata’s nomination will be withdrawn entirely or if the hearing will go on at another time. Inhofe claimed that the delay was merely due to the upcoming Congressional recess.

“There are many Democrats and Republicans who didn’t know enough about Anthony Tata to consider him for a very significant position at this time,” he said. “As I told the President last night, we’re simply out of time with the August recess coming, so it wouldn’t serve any useful purpose to have a hearing at this point, and he agreed.”

The Pentagon confirmed that Tata continues to work as an adviser to Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said that Tata does not support the comments he made two years ago and has sent a letter retracting them to the confirmation committee.