- Sen. Tommy Tuberville said that Russia is a 'communist country' in remarks at an Alabama event this week.
- He also said Putin decided to invade Ukraine because he "can't feed his people" and needs ''more farmland."
- The Alabama Republican, a former Auburn football coach, has a history of flubbing historical facts.
As Russia began its invasion of Ukraine this week, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said that Russia is still a 'communist country' and said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was launching an invasion in order to acquire more farmland.
Tuberville made the remarks in a address before the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce billed a "Washington Brief," where he also discussed the pandemic, rumored trucker protests in Washington, DC, and his tenure as a senator so far. His remarks were reported by 1819 News.
"He can't feed his people," Tuberville said, referring to Putin. "It's a communist country, so he can't feed his people, so they need more farmland."
Tuberville, a former Auburn football coach before ascending to the US Senate with the help of an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, sits on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, which has purview over the US military.
Russia, however, is not a communist country, and has not been since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991. There is also scant evidence to suggest that Putin is invading Ukraine out of a desire for more farmland. Putin is falsely justifying the present invasion of a sovereign nation as an attempt to "de-Nazify" the country and protect ethnic Russian.
The senator's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment or clarification on his remarks.
Tuberville is no stranger to making major historical gaffes. In a speech to supporters shortly after defeating former Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in 2020, Tuberville said that his father — who landed at Normandy and fought in France during World War II — was part of "liberating Paris from socialism and communism," despite the fact that Nazi Germany, which occupied France for much of the war, was not a communist country.
He was also criticized by Jones for apparently not knowing what the Voting Rights Act was during the 2020 election, and referred to "the House, the Senate and executive" as the three "branches of government" in an interview shortly after his election. (The three branches of government are the executive, legislative, and judicial branches).
One of the Republican Party's most vocal critics of China, Tuberville recently divested from his investments in Alibaba, a Chinese technology company with close ties to the country's Communist Party.