Trump ally and retired Army Gen. Anthony J. Tata’s nomination hearing for Undersecretary for Defense Policy was a last-minute scratch Thursday, with the committee citing missing documents for the highly contentious nominee.
“We didn’t get the required documentation in time,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe said in a statement released Thursday morning after the hearing was abruptly called off.
“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, an Oklahoma Republican, continued.
Inhofe’s statement also said President Trump agreed Wednesday night to delay the hearing.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the nomination was doomed because of defections on the Republican side.
Democrats, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, had already declared their opposition to Tata based on prior inflammatory statements, claiming religious insensitivity. At least one Republican, Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, had also threatened to vote against Tata for other reasons.
“Nominees should see the value diversity, inclusion, and unity bring to our institutions. Unfortunately, your history of public remarks does not meet this standard,” wrote Warren in her letter, signed by several Democrats.
In 2018, Tata made remarks on Twitter that were critical of Islam and claimed that President Barack Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear agreement showed that Islam had been elevated above U.S. national interests.
Inhofe left the door open for a Tata hearing at a later point.
“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,” he said in the statement.
