Tenure
Tuberville was one of six Republican senators to vote against expanding the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which would allow the U.S. Justice Department to review hate crimes related to COVID-19 and establish an online database.
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Tuberville claimed that Putin had ordered the invasion because Russia could not feed its people and required Ukrainian farmland. He inaccurately called Russia a communist country (Russia abandoned communism after the collapse of the Soviet Union).
In May 2022, Tuberville introduced the Financial Freedom Act of 2022, which would allow for the inclusion of cryptocurrency in individual retirement accounts.
Speaking at a Trump rally in Nevada on October 8, 2022, Tuberville claimed that Democrats are "pro-crime", "want to take over what you've got", and "want reparation [sic] because they think the people that do the crime are owed that". These remarks were widely condemned as inaccurate and racist; for example, the NAACP called them "flat out racist, ignorant and utterly sickening".
Tuberville was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, telling reporters, "This bill does not go nearly far enough to reform our broken budget".
In June 2024, Tuberville called Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "dictator" and said that Russian president Vladimir Putin "doesn't want Ukraine. He doesn't want Europe. Hell, he's got enough land of his own. He just wants to make sure he doesn't have United States weapons in Ukraine pointing at Moscow."
In June 2025, Tuberville drew backlash after appearing on Benny Johnson's show, where he called people in urban areas "inner-city rats" who "live off the federal government" and called on President Trump to "send them back home".
After taking office in January 2021, Tuberville joined a group of Republican senators who announced they would formally object to counting electoral votes won by Democratic president-elect Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. The objections were part of a continued effort by Trump and his allies to overturn his defeat in the election.
When the Electoral College count was held on January 6, pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, forcing officials to evacuate their chambers before the count was completed. Trump contacted Tuberville during the riot through the cell phone of Utah senator Mike Lee, whom Trump misdialed. The count resumed that evening once the Capitol was secured.
Tuberville voted in support of an objection to Arizona's electoral votes and an objection to Pennsylvania's electoral votes, which were both won by Biden. He was one of six Republican senators to support the former objection and one of seven to support the latter objection; the remainder of the Senate defeated the objections. No further objections to the electoral votes were debated and the count concluded on the morning of January 7, certifying Biden's victory over Trump.
On May 28, 2021, Tuberville voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 United States Capitol attack.
In January 2025, after Trump pardoned January 6 United States Capitol attack defendants on the first day of his second presidency, Tuberville told ABC News he fully supported the pardons. Asked about pardons for rioters who attacked police, Tuberville said: "I don't believe it because I didn't see it."
When Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization came before the Supreme Court in 2022, Tuberville signed an amicus brief supporting the overturning of Roe v. Wade and its federal protection of abortion. After Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, Tuberville called it a "victory for life".
In 2022, Tuberville responded to a question about the Respect for Marriage Act, which would federally codify same-sex marriage, by saying there was "no need for legislating on gay marriage". He also said, "I'm all about live life the way you want to. It's a free country." He voted against the bill, which passed and was signed into law.
Tuberville failed to timely disclose approximately 132 stock trades made between January and May 2021 that violated the STOCK Act. These transactions, valued between $894,000 and $3.56 million, were not reported to the Senate until several months after the legal deadline. He was found to have bought or sold stocks and options in 17 companies that had business before Senate committees on which he served, such as the Armed Services Committee.
In 2022, Tuberville dismissed proposals to ban lawmakers from trading stocks as "ridiculous".
In 2025, Tuberville and Senator John Cornyn introduced the "No Sharia" Act, which would prohibit the implementation of sharia, or Islamic law. On the Senate floor, Tuberville said, "Radical Islamists would like to see every freedom-loving American dead. This isn't politically correct to say, but it's true. If you live in America and practice sharia law, you should be deported immediately." He added that Muslim immigrants in Europe have "taken over France, Italy, the UK. That's been a process. Now they have all mayors from these from these Islamic countries, and so they're trying to change into sharia law [...] Wake up, America. They're here, they're on our shores, and they're trying to change our way of life." After the 2025 Washington, D.C., National Guard shooting, allegedly perpetrated by an Afghan immigrant, Tuberville called for a ban on Muslim immigration, writing on X: "We must IMMEDIATELY BAN all ISLAM immigrants and DEPORT every single Islamist who is living among us just waiting to attack."
Tuberville has called Islam a "cult" that is "incompatible with western values", telling an Infowars reporter, "Muslim communities are moving everywhere. In every state, they're building mosques, they're having these five prayers a day, they're pushing this cult on everybody across this country." Tuberville spoke out against the proposed move of the Islamic Academy of Alabama to Hoover, Alabama, saying, "If you believe in the Quran and go by sharia law and want to chant 'Death to America' and teach that nonsense in these schools, I don't want you here [...] Muslims go by the Quran. And the Quran is cited on the Islamic Academy of Alabama's website. The Quran says to kill all infidels. That means all people who don't believe in Islam." The academy's assistant principal denied that the school promoted sharia law or any political ideology. After the academy decided not to relocate, Tuberville said, "This week, the people of Hoover, Alabama, came together and sent a clear message. We do not want extremist Islamic indoctrination centers taking over our state [...] We're at war in this country with all the people that have come here from all over the world. And listen, we love immigration. We're...all a part of an immigrant family one time and the other. But a lot of people come here and they want to assimilate. Not the group coming here from the Muslim countries. They have an agenda." Tuberville told Steve Bannon, "Muslim immigrants are bringing World War III to American soil."
On the Alex Jones show, Tuberville accused members of Congress of supporting Hamas. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has accused Tuberville of fostering anti-Muslim bigotry. After Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim, was elected mayor of New York City, Tuberville said, "We lost New York. It will be completely Muslim in three or four years." Of Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, Tuberville said, "I think we ought to pack him up and send him home." He has called Mamdani an "openly jihadist terrorist sympathizer" and a "radical Islamist". When Ghazala Hashmi was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia using a Quran, Tuberville wrote, "The enemy is inside the gates." In March 2026, Tuberville posted a photo of the September 11 attacks alongside Mamdani, again writing, "The enemy is inside the gates."
After the 2025 Brown University shooting, Tuberville suggested without evidence that the perpetrator was a jihadist. After the 2025 Bondi Beach shooting, Tuberville called for the mass expulsion of Muslims from the U.S. He wrote on X: "Islam is not a religion. It's a cult. Islamists aren't here to assimilate. They're here to conquer. Stop worrying about offending the pearl-clutchers. We've got to SEND THEM HOME NOW or we'll become the United Caliphate of America." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the post an "outrageous, disgusting display of Islamophobia" that is "beneath a United States senator".
In August 2026, after Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic nomination for the 2026 United States Senate election in Michigan, Tuberville called El-Sayed "a radical Islamist" and a "terrorist".
In 2022, Tuberville was among the 11 senators who voted against the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022, a bill that provided funding for research and benefits for up to 3.5 million veterans exposed to toxic substances during their service.
Tuberville has backed several bills intended to restrict various activities by transgender people.
In February 2023, he co-sponsored a bill to prevent people with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria from serving in the U.S. military, with limited exceptions.
In March 2023, he reintroduced a bill to forbid public schools from allowing a trans girl or woman to participate in a girl's or women's sport. Co-sponsored by 19 Republicans, the act says gender would be "recognized based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth" rather than how a person identifies.
On March 25, 2023, Tuberville complained publicly about a video showing Lieutenant Junior Grade Audrey Knutson, who is nonbinary, reading a poem during a spoken-word event aboard the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. The video had gone viral after the U.S. Navy posted it to its Instagram page. After Tuberville told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he had "a lot of problems with the video", Admiral Mike Gilday, chief of naval operations, said he was "particularly proud of this sailor" and added that if someone is "willing to serve and willing to take the same oath that you and I took to put their life on the line, then I'm proud to serve beside them."
On March 29, 2024, Tuberville accused the Democratic Party of being a "Satanic cult" in response to a tweet by the New York Post about the banning of religious-themed designs from the White House Easter Egg art contest. His comment came at a time of widespread backlash by right-wing to far-right politicians and pundits after Biden publicly acknowledged International Transgender Day of Visibility, which fell on the same date as Easter in 2024.
In January 2025, Tuberville said that transgender children should "live in fear" of their parents as he believed the parents were turning them trans, which Tuberville called "child abuse" and an "absolute disgrace". LGBTQ Nation refuted these claims, saying that "there is no evidence that a person who is not LGBTQ+ can be turned LGBTQ+ by their parents".
On January 30, 2025, Andy Blalock, president of the Huntsville chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, said that Tuberville "has always supported fairness and equality in sports, including ensuring that members of the trans community can create and join leagues and teams, just as there are league and team sports designated for biological men and women" and expressed support for Tuberville's efforts to bar transgender women from competing in women's sports.
In December 2022, after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced an upcoming policy to allow pregnant service members leave and reimbursement of travel costs so that they may obtain legal abortions in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, Tuberville threatened to put a Senate hold on all military promotions in protest of the policy. The policy was instituted in February 2023, with Tuberville announcing a day later that he would hold all "civilian, flag, and general officer nominations" due to the "illegal expansion of DoD authority and gross misuse of taxpayer dollars" for abortions.
Over the next few months, Tuberville's hold blocked the filling of hundreds of senior positions. "Without these leaders in place, these holes severely limit the department's ability to ensure the right person is in place at the right time, and to ensure a strategic readiness and operational success", Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said on June 20.
On July 11, Tuberville blocked the confirmation of a new Marine Corps commandant, leaving the Corps without a leader for the first time in two centuries. By August, more than 300 generals, admirals, and policy officials had not yet been confirmed. The hold also blocked the appointment of a new Army chief of staff, vacant as of August 3, and a new chief of naval operations, vacant as of August 14. Five military commands at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama were also affected.
On September 20, the Senate, working around Tuberville's hold in a rarely used procedure, voted to confirm three of the highest-ranking officers: the Joint Chiefs chairman, Marine Corps commandant, and Army chief of staff. The move elevated Marine Corps general Eric Smith to commandant, but the hold prevented him from appointing a deputy commandant, a situation he called "not sustainable". On October 29, Smith was hospitalized after suffering a heart attack. Lacking a deputy commandant or other available four-star general, the Marine Corps tapped a lieutenant general to temporarily perform the duties of commandant.
On November 1, incensed senators brought dozens of military nominations to the floor; Tuberville blocked them all. The next day, the Senate confirmed a new chief of naval operations, a new Air Force chief of staff, and a new assistant commandant of the Marine Corps through a laborious process of circulating a cloture petition.
On December 5, 2023, Tuberville largely lifted his hold, which had blocked 451 promotions during the previous week; the Senate responded by promoting 425 military officers. But he retained his hold on 11 officers nominated for four-star positions. On December 19, he lifted the hold on the final 11 officers, ending the matter.
In 2025, Tuberville praised Trump's proposal to have the U.S. take over the Gaza Strip, calling it "a good idea".
On May 10, 2023, Birmingham-area radio station WBHM broadcast an interview in which Tuberville was asked whether he believed white nationalists should be allowed to serve in the military. Tuberville said the Biden administration "call[s] them that. I call them Americans." Later that day, his congressional staff released a statement that said Tuberville "was being skeptical of the notion that there are white nationalists in the military, not that he believes they should be in the military." U.S. military leaders have said extremism in the ranks is growing. For example, an October 2020 Pentagon report said there were "white supremacist inroads in the U.S. military". Much independent reporting indicates this as well.
After the interview, Tuberville's brother Charles said he felt "compelled to distance himself" from Tuberville and his "ignorant, hateful rants" and "vile rhetoric".
In July 2023, CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked Tuberville about his earlier comments on white nationalists, whom she defined as "someone who believes that the white race is superior to other races". Tuberville called that an "opinion". He then denied white nationalists are inherently racist. Tuberville's refusal to accept the definition of a white nationalist drew heavy criticism from Democrats and Republican senators. A day later, Tuberville reversed his statement, saying, "White nationalists are racists."
In June 2025, during a podcast appearance with Benny Johnson, Tuberville railed against "inner-city rats" he said are "living off the American taxpayers" and advocated that President Trump defund U.S. cities governed by Democrats. He also claimed that The Great Replacement is happening.
In June 2023, a New Hampshire resident was arrested and charged with threatening to assault, kidnap or murder a member of Congress. The charging documents did not name Tuberville as the target, but did say the charge was connected to his 2023 hold on military promotions.
In October 2023, Michael Hayden, a retired Air Force general and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, responded to a social-media post asking whether Tuberville should be removed from his committee assignments by saying, "How about the human race?" After some interpreted this as a call for Tuberville's assassination, Hayden said he was suggesting that the senator not be considered human. Tuberville reported the comment to the United States Capitol Police, saying that Hayden had called for his "politically motivated assassination".
On December 24, 2023, Tuberville was doxxed and swatted, along with other leading activists and politicians in the same period.
At a March 11, 2025, Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing on the mass termination of VA employees, Tuberville said that private companies with proprietary technology had solicited him to receive contracts to operate at the VA, and that these private companies would benefit the VA and should be strongly considered.
