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GOP Senator Blocking 265 Military Promotions Falsely Promoted His Father’s WWII Service: Report
U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) campaigned on a platform of being a staunch supporter of the men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces and pro-veteran. His claims, including surrounding his own father’s service, are being called into question.
Senator Tuberville, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is a former college football coach, who goes by the nickname “Coach,” in campaign material and even on his official U.S. Senate website. Just weeks ago Tuberville, who has never served in the U.S. Armed Forces, told reporters, “There is nobody more military than me.”
Tuberville time and time again has used claims about his father’s record in World War II, which also appear on Tuberville’s campaign website, Tuberville’s official Senate website (and in this archived copy) to promote himself.
“Tuberville was inspired to serve in Congress by his father, a World War II veteran and recipient of five Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart, who instilled in him the values of patriotism, work ethic, and grit,” his Senate website reads.
RELATED: Tommy Tuberville Pledged to ‘Donate Every Dime I Make When I’m in Washington’ to Vets – He Hasn’t
Tuberville’s 2020 campaign website says, “it is the legacy of his father, a highly decorated WWII veteran and Purple Heart recipient, that motivates Coach Tuberville to give back to the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces.” That website also lists as his first “issue,” “Serving those who served.”
It also reads: “The first role of our government is to protect its citizens and that is why I will support a strong and robust military. I know we must provide our Armed Forces with the tools and resources they need to protect Americans at home and abroad. Alabamians are proud and we stand with our military and our Veterans who have given so much for our nation.”
In June, Tuberville celebrated D-Day with a Fox News interview during which he lauded his father’s service – and denigrated today’s U.S. Military.
“Today, Coach is June 6, which is a big date in your family, because June 6, D-Day 1944. Your father was there, and wound up driving a tank across Europe,” Fox News’ Steve Doocy said to Tuberville, and Fox News viewers.
“79 years ago. They said it was the most important day in the 20th century, because if we don’t win on D-Day, and the days after that, this whole country – the world is in trouble,” Senator Tuberville responded.
Talking about his father, Tuberville told Fox News, “he lied about his age at 16. Joined the Army. Said it’s the first time he ever had a new pair of boots. And then he landed at Utah Beach and drove a tank across Europe, awarded five Bronze Stars and a purple heart at age 18.”
After sharing an amusing anecdote, Sen. Tuberville then took a shot at today’s U.S. Armed Forces.
“And, and back then, back then war was war. And it was pretty much hand-to-hand combat. And you know,” speaking about his father, Tuiberville added, “he said, ‘we stayed cold, hungry, it was miserable, scared for our lives,’ and he lost most of his friends, you know, in his company, that he went in, with but this is not the same military we have had back then.”
Today marks the 79th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
My father, Charles Tuberville, made the D-Day landing at Normandy as a tank commander with the 101st infantry.
He served with honor during World War II, earning five Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. pic.twitter.com/aUCjCpfYMe
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) June 6, 2023
What Sen. Tuberville may be referring to is today’s military includes women and and LGBTQ service members who fight in combat.
Tuberville has been accused of putting national security at risk because he currently is blocking 265 military promotions, all of which need to be confirmed by the Senate. His blockade started in February, and he refuses to budge.
Why?
In response to state bans on abortions, the Pentagon decided it will reimburse service members who need to travel to a different state to access abortion services. Tuberville opposes abortion.
“This indefinite hold harms America’s national security and hinders the Pentagon’s normal operations,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said.
According to a deep dive by The Washington Post, several of the claims Sen. Tuiberville repeatedly makes about his father’s service are false, including that his dad joined the military when he was 16 years old.
“This is false,” an analysis by The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler reveals. “Charles Tuberville, who was born in 1925, turned 16 five months before the United States entered World War II because of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His draft registration card (front and back) shows he submitted it on July 16, 1943 — his 18th birthday.”
The Post also disputes Tuberville’s claim his father was a tank commander.
“This is dubious. Charles Tuberville’s tombstone lists his highest rank as ‘TEC 5’ or technician fifth grade, an Army rank at the time that indicated technical skills but not combat leadership. According to a 1944 Army memo, TEC 5 jobs were limited to armorer, cook, tank driver, light truck driver or tank mechanic. Tuberville would have needed to be a sergeant to be a tank commander.”
Tuberville has repeatedly claimed his father was awarded “five bronze stars.”
“This is false. The Bronze Star, the eighth-highest military award, is earned when a soldier ‘distinguished himself or herself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service’ in combat with an armed enemy of the United States,” The Post reports. “Earning five Bronze Stars would be highly unusual; Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of World War II, earned two Silver Stars and two Bronze Stars, among other medals.”
Instead, the Post reports, Tuberville’s father “earned not Bronze Stars, but rather Bronze service stars — which denote that a soldier was physically present during a particular military campaign or engagement.”
Another of Tuberville’s claims, that his father drove a tank in Paris when U.S. troops liberated the city, The Post deems simply, “not possible.”
See the video above or at this link.
Image by lev radin/Shutterstock
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
