An uproar in Congress has accompanied President Trump appointing retired Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata to a Pentagon position after his Senate confirmation hearing was abruptly canceled last week. Now, the Pentagon is saying President Barack Obama did it too.
“I will just point out that in the prior administration, a current member of Congress was designated the senior official performing the duties of the deputy undersecretary of defense for policy for over a year,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told members of the media Thursday.
“This is not unusual. This is a delegation of responsibilities,” he added.
The alleged Obama appointee Hoffman was referring to could not be immediately confirmed.
Tata’s nomination was opposed by several Democrats and at least one Republican related in part to tweets in 2018 that were denigrating to the religion of Islam and called President Obama “a terrorist leader.”
Tata had been preparing for a bruising Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing last Thursday when Chairman Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, abruptly pulled the plug on the hearing, citing missing documents.
“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,” Inhofe said in a statement.
Inhofe also said he placed a late-night call to Trump, who approved canceling the hearing.
Tata then withdrew his name from consideration for the position.
By Sunday, Tata was designated to a position “performing the duties of” the role that he did not receive Senate confirmation for.
Hoffman downplayed the controversy Thursday and noted that seven other Pentagon nominees appeared before the Senate this week.
“This is a simple delegation that allows an individual to serve performing many of those duties, but it is not an acting role, he does not have all of the statutory responsibilities of that. He’s just performing the duties,” Hoffman said. “I will note that this is not uncommon.”
Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed of Rhode Island called the appointment “a flagrant end run around the confirmation process.”
Hoffman assured that the Pentagon is still committed to the confirmation process in most cases.
“The department is still committed to providing names that the president appointed for consideration by the Senate and hopeful of confirmation and placement in their positions within the department,” he said.
