U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said Thursday that as governor, he is willing to deploy the National Guard in Alabama and that the military needed to be a “killing machine.”
Tuberville, a former Auburn University head football coach, made the comments on the “Breitbart Daily News Podcast.” He said he would follow President Donald Trump’s lead in deploying the National Guard to cities in contrast to Gov. Kay Ivey.
“Well, things are going to change, and they’re going to change for one reason,” Tuberville said.
“His name is Donald J. Trump … So I’m glad President Trump is doing this. I’m glad he’s sending out National Guard to a lot of these cities and these urban cities that can’t control their own people and get some sense of reality back in our country.
“But I plan on going back and doing the same thing. If we need to take over our streets with [the] National Guard, we’ll do it,” Tuberville said.
Tuberville, who is currently the front-runner in Alabama’s 2026 gubernatorial race, said a few weeks ago that as governor, he would deploy the National Guard to Birmingham and Montgomery to “fight rampant crime.”
Critics of the National Guard deployment say the moves by the Trump administration are purely partisan and conducted or talked about in relation to cities controlled by Democrats or have a population that is majority minority.
Tuberville was also asked about how he felt about Secretary of War Pete Hegseth working to get the military “back on track” from it being “woke.”
Tuberville said that the military should focus on becoming a “killing machine” and generals who are not loyal to the Trump administration’s agenda should be fired.
“It starts with the generals and stuff,” Tuberville said. “If they can’t get the job done and get away from this nonsensical atmosphere of DEI, identity politics, these policies are going to get us all in trouble. It’s about building a killing machine that people are afraid of.
“It sounds bad. It sounds pretty rough, but hey, this is a rough world, and we’re being attacked from from within our boundaries and outside our boundaries right now, and so we have to prepare, and we have to have 2 million young men and women that will be willing to fight and give their lives for this country.”
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