“I have no more personal announcements to say that the president still supports him,” he said.
White House officials have discussed installing Tata, who has been senior adviser to Defense Secretary Mark Esper since earlier this year, in a different position as an actor. This would be allowed under a provision of the Vacancy Reform Act that allows the White House to appoint someone to an acting position, as long as the person has held a senior adviser position at that agency for 90 days before the vacancy occurs.
Tata’s nomination to be undersecretary of defense for politics changed Thursday when the Senate Armed Services Committee canceled her confirmation hearing minutes before it was supposed to start. Tata has been criticized in recent months for Obama’s tweet and for referring to Islam as the “most oppressive violent religion I know,” among other controversial statements. Tata then said she regretted the now deleted tweets.
Committee chairman Senator Jim Inhofe said in a statement Thursday that many lawmakers still don’t know enough about Tata to consider him for the position, adding that the committee did not receive certain required documents on time.
“As I said to the president last night, we are simply out of time with the August recess, so there would be no useful purpose in having an audience at this time, and he agreed,” Inhofe said.
Senator Jack Reed (DR.I.), the committee’s top Democrat, said in a statement Thursday that “members on both sides of the aisle have raised serious questions about this candidate.”
Most Democrats in the armed services oppose Tata. A Republican, Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, also warned that he would vote not for his confirmation, although for different reasons.
