Trump skirts Senate to install nominee under fire for Islamaphobic tweets in Pentagon post

Source: Politico | August 2, 2020 | Lara Seligman

Anthony Tata has been designated as the official ‘performing the duties of’ the deputy undersecretary of defense policy.

President Donald Trump has installed a nominee for a top Pentagon job in a senior Department of Defense post on a temporary basis after lawmakers abruptly canceled his confirmation hearing last week amid lingering questions about his fitness for the role.

Retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, a novelist, former state government official and Fox News regular, withdrew Sunday from consideration to be undersecretary of defense for policy, a position that requires Senate confirmation, the Pentagon said in a statement emailed to POLITICO Sunday.

Instead, he has been designated as the official “performing the duties of” the deputy undersecretary of defense policy. The position Tata will assume is one that James H. Anderson was confirmed for in June; Anderson has also been serving as acting undersecretary of defense policy and will remain in that post.

Since Trump announced his intent to nominate Tata earlier this year, the former Army general has been widely criticized for tweets calling former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader” and referring to Islam as the “most oppressive violent religion I know of,” among other controversial statements.

Tata later said he regretted the now-deleted tweets.

His nomination to be undersecretary of defense for policy, the department’s number three official, was upended Thursday when the Senate Armed Services Committee canceled his confirmation hearing minutes before it was scheduled to begin.

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