On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) spoke to Newsmax about a provision in the recently passed government funding bill that grants him and a group of fellow GOP senators the ability to sue the federal government after being targeted in a covert surveillance operation conducted by the Biden administration.
The provision was quickly met with condemnation from both Republicans and Democrats, with some concerned that taxpayers could be footing the bill in a potential lawsuit.
Tuberville made clear that he is firmly against the provision, acknowledging the undue harm it could cause everyday Americans.
"I don't think anybody needs to go after the American taxpayer here. They didn't do anything," Tuberville said. "This is making American taxpayers pay money."
Rather than suing the federal government, Tuberville suggested an alternate path of accountability for those involved in the surveillance.
"You put crooked judges like [Judge James] Boasberg — you impeach him," he said. "And you put [former Special Counsel] Jack Smith, who was a crooked Department of Justice employee that did this behind the scenes — put him in jail. That's what we have to do," he added.
Tuberville also expressed support for "going after" involved phone carriers as a private citizen, rather than a lawmaker.
"If you want to go after somebody, you go after the telephone companies that did this to you as an individual," Tuberville said. "Not as a senator, not as a congressman, but as a private citizen."
Tuberville reiterated his opposition to any taxpayer-funded solution to solve the issue.
"There's no reason why we should even put a monetary value on this," Tuberville argued. "We don't need to charge the American taxpayer. My God, what are we trying to prove here?"
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