EXCLUSIVE: Full context of Sen. Tuberville’s answer on Israel

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - A portion of our interview with Senator Tommy Tuberville conducted on Tuesday is generating controversy and even lead to a rebuke from a Deputy White House Press Secretary.

WBRC Anchor/Investigative Reporter Jonathan Hardison asked the Senator about the Israel and Hamas war, and a rapid response social media team for the Democratic National Committee took a part of his answer where he said “when you start picking sides in the Middle East, it could get really messy very quick,” and posted it online.

The White House Deputy Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser Andrew Bates sent a memo Wednesday referencing the soundbite and saying:

“Outrageously, at the same time Senator Tuberville is directly sabotaging the American military – including in the Middle East – he is also warning against “picking sides,” even after Israel endured horrific terrorist attacks from Hamas. Last night he told a reporter, “the problem is, when you start picking sides in the Middle East, it can get really messy very quick.” President Biden was explicit yesterday about where America stands: “We’re with Israel. Let’s make no mistake.”

In an effort to always give you the full story - we wanted to share a longer part of Senator Tuberville’s answer leading into the soundbite that’s now gotten more than a million views online.

“This thing could really get out of hand. People taking sides, people getting involved,” Sen. Tuberville said. “The ball is in the court of President Netanyahu of Israel. He as 400-500,000 troops on the border of Gaza. He’s going to decide whether they’re going to go in or not. We’re having, late tonight, an all Senators conference and telling us really what’s going on. I’m hoping that cooler heads prevail--they don’t go into Palestine. Hopefully they get the hostages back and people start cooperating. But this has been really bad. Israel has the right to go, because they came in and they did some terrible things in their country. But the problem is---when you start picking sides in the Middle East, it could get really messy very quick.”

Senator Tuberville sent this statement to WBRC late Thursday afternoon in response to the reaction to his comments:

If you would like to see the entire part of our interview that covered both the war in Israel and his hold on military promotions and whether Sen. Tuberville believes it’s affecting military readiness, you can watch that here:

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