Attorney General Steve Marshall called former CIA director Michael Hayden a "failure [and] a disgrace" for standing by his suggestion that U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) should be "removed" from the human race.

Former President George W. Bush appointed Hayden CIA director in 2006. Before that, he was head of head of the National Security Agency, overseeing the organization's controversial domestic wiretapping program.

Hayden's comments came amid an extensive battle between Tuberville and the Department of Defense (DOS) over a new abortion policy that aids female soldiers in states where abortion is illegal in obtaining abortions elsewhere. Tuberville, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been preventing the Biden administration from getting DOD nominees confirmed in mass. 

After suggesting the senator should be removed from "the human race" on X, formerly known as Twitter, Hayden stood by his comment the following morning, labeling those enraged over the comment "MAGAnuts." 

"[Tuberville] was sent to Washington [by the people of Alabama] to represent our interests," said Marshall on Tuesday morning, quoting a tweet from Tuberville about Hayden. "He is due respect and decency, as are the people who sent him there. Mr. Hayden knows that this kind of reckless rhetoric is dangerous, yet doubled down. He is both a failure & a disgrace."

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