Is U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, donating his salary to veterans like he promised? And has the Tommy Tuberville Foundation, a charity created to support veterans, donated money recently to those individuals? Both of those questions remain unclear as of this publication.
On Monday, Tuberville held a golf tournament through his foundation which has in the past been promoted as a means to help gather funds to give to veterans. APR reached out to Tuberville’s office following the tournament about whether he has donated his salary and whether the foundation has recently given money and to whom.
APR received a response from his senate office refusing to answer the question by saying to contact the foundation as there is no interaction, “with that on the official side.”
“We don’t have any interaction with that on the official side, so your question would best be directed to those working for his foundation,” Hannah Eddins, Tuberville’s press secretary stated in an email.
However, when attempting to contact the foundation APR found that the website is currently no longer working. Also, APR followed up with Eddins and specifically asked if only the foundation would know if he donated his salary. Eddins has not responded to the follow-up as of this publication.
A Washington Post Fact Checker report in July confirmed at that time that Tuberville had not donated his salary as he pledged. According to the report, Tuberville’s communications director Steven Stafford, said the reason why the senator had not yet donated his salary was because of an audit with the IRS. However, Stafford also said the audit was “recently completed” during that July report and the foundation is resuming its activities.
With the golf tournament being held this week it would appear the foundation is operating normally yet with a broken website and even a staff unaware of the foundation’s dealings it is not apparent whether money is going to veterans or veteran causes. According to the Washington Post article, several veteran organizations said they no longer received donations from Tuberville since he took office.
Tuberville continues to make headlines with his ongoing blockade of military promotions in protest of a Department of Defense policy concerning access to abortions for service members. Since starting this hold in March, over 300 military members’ promotions have been stalled.
Also, the senator appears to now be targeting the military for being “woke”. On Tuesday, Tuberville said the military was not an “equal-opportunity employer.” The comments were made in reference to Tuberville voting against confirming Air Force Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr., who is Black, as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“We’re not looking for different groups, social justice groups,” Tuberville said. LWe don’t want to single-handedly destroy our military from within.”
Tuberville has also had some recent controversies when it comes to discussions of race by saying white nationalists were Americans and insinuating that Black people “do crime.”
