The U.S. Senate has cancelled a Thursday confirmation hearing for Anthony Tata, President Donald Trump’s nominee for an undersecretary of defense position.
Tata is a retired Army brigadier general who served for almost 30 years. If confirmed, he would hold the most senior policy position in the Pentagon.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman, Republican Jim Inhofe, said the hearing was canceled because the Senate did not yet know enough about Tata to make a decision, and that some of the documentation did not come in on time.
Tata has been a strong Trump supporter, appearing several times on Fox News to voice his support. In now-deleted Twitter posts, he reportedly falsely accused former president Barack Obama of being a “terrorist leader” working on Iran’s behalf.
The White House has stated its support for Tata.
“Anthony Tata is a distinguished public servant whose career has provided him with planning, policy, and operational experience both at home and abroad,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.
Many Democrats in the Senate have voiced their opposition to Tata. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said he was “by far Trump’s most unqualified and ill-suited senior defense nominee... .”
