Only in banana republics, one would think, would former top government officials call openly for the assassination of the political opposition.
Well then, welcome to the banana republic of the United States.
One day after former Gen. Michael Hayden, a past director of the CIA and the National Security Agency, called for Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville to be removed from “the human race” for holding up military appointments, Tuberville struck back, saying his office “has reported this incident to the Capitol Police and I expect that they will once again do an excellent job protecting members of Congress and bringing criminals to justice.”
Tuberville has been much in the news of late, holding up military appointments and promotions over the Pentagon’s policy to pay for servicewomen stationed in states that put limits on abortion to travel to states with no such limits, according to Fox News.
When liberal social media personality Nathalie Jacoby asked her followers Monday night whether Tuberville should be removed from the Senate Armed Services Committee over the holdup, Hayden responded thusly: “How about the human race?”
How about the human race? https://t.co/UCGCfF1lA3
— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) October 10, 2023
Now, suggesting that someone be removed from “the human race” — in the active sense, which is what Hayden clearly implies here — is to say something must be done to hasten that exit. When done to a politician for a political purpose, this is called assassination.
Mollie Hemingway, author and editor of the conservative website The Federalist, didn’t let Hayden’s post go by unnoticed.
Should Hayden be charged?
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Former CIA Director Michael Hayden calls for the assassination of Sen. Tuberville because the senator is performing desperately needed oversight of the U.S. Military. Hayden, a renowned civil liberties violator, promoted the Biden laptop coverup and the Russia collusion scam. pic.twitter.com/MpwOSxJkPj
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 10, 2023
Hayden, you may not be surprised to know, did not have this interpretation of things, and insisted in a follow-up post on Tuesday that the “MAGAnuts had lost their minds” over it.
I was surprised to wake up this morning and discover that many MAGAnuts had lost their minds over my suggestion that “Coach” Tuberville not be considered a member of the human race. I stand by that view. I’m wishing you all a nice day even the intransigent Tommy Tuberville.
— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) October 10, 2023
Tuberville, a former football coach at Auburn University before becoming a senator, is often referred to as “Coach Tuberville” by his supporters. But Hayden’s use of the term here comes across more as a way of avoiding referring to the senator by his actual title of “Senator” — the title that puts him in a position to combat the Biden administration’s abortion policies.
Hayden is now claiming he meant simply to imply that we not consider Tuberville a member of the human race. That, as anyone who understands English can agree, is definitely not what he wrote.
In response, Tuberville announced Tuesday he’d reported the original statement to the proper authorities and criticized Hayden’s disturbing history, to boot.
“This morning my office was made aware of a statement made by General Michael Hayden calling for a politically motivated assassination,” Tuberville said in a statement. “This statement is disgusting and it is repugnant to everything we believe in as Americans. Given General Hayden’s long career in Washington, he must have known that, by making such a statement, he was committing a serious crime.”
He also said that Hayden’s “own efforts today to reinterpret what he said are only a tacit admission of guilt” and noted that he was “not aware of a single Democrat member of Congress who has condemned this reckless statement.”
“This deafening silence tells us everything we need to know about Democrats and their commitment to ‘Our Democracy.’”
My statement on General Hayden. pic.twitter.com/KQ0sLz6gTQ
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) October 10, 2023
He went on to criticize Hayden’s record in the intelligence community, which included various roles that spanned from the Clinton to the Obama administration — including intelligence failures around 9/11 and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
After he left the intelligence community, Tuberville said, Hayden also “actively participated in the Russia Hoax and lied about Hunter Biden’s Laptop to get Joe Biden elected president. Both of these lies tore our country apart and did enormous damage to the fabric of our republic.”
And, as for Hayden’s snide comment about the removal of Tuberville from the human race, the statement said: “Anyone who cares about our country must go on the record and condemn his reckless statements.”
It’s a stretch to imagine Hayden would be charged with anything. The First Amendment still applies in the United States, no matter how much Democrats want to gut it when it comes to political positions that oppose them. Besides, Hayden is one of the Beltway elite — he’s untouchable under a Democratic administration, and he knows it.
However, there ought to be other repercussions. A man who euphemistically calls for assassination must be singled out for shame and ignominy. Being called out by Sen. Tuberville should just be the start of Hayden’s problems.
We’re not a banana republic yet, and we shouldn’t be acting like one, either.
