Monday, former Auburn head football Coach Tommy Tuberville (R) was in Pell City meeting with members of the St. Clair County Republican Party at Market City Grill.
“11 months ago, I started with a cell phone and me,” Tuberville said. Now I have a really good team and expects to win on Tuesday. “It is kind of like a football game you have prepared for 11 months instead of a week.”
Tuberville said that when he started this his wife told him: you run don’t come home until you win. “I might have a chance to come home tomorrow.”
“They have sold us out to special interest,” Tuberville said of Congress.
On term limits, Tuberville said, “I am all for em, but it is hard to pass it.”
“We have two swamp dwellers who have had 30 years combined,” Tuberville said of his opponents (Bradley Byrne and Jeff Sessions). “Vote ’em out.”
Tuberville said that his father was career U.S. Army. He drove a tank all over Europe during World War II earning five bronze stars and a purple heart. He died of a heart attack at age 53 during a training exercise.
“You hit the lottery if you are born in this country,” Tuberville said.
“The country has been run on auto pilot for 40 or 50 years,” Tuberville said. “We are $23 trillion in debt. We took God out of our schools and prayer out of schools. We replaced God with metal detectors.”
Tuberville said that some kids from certain religions can pray in school but other kids if they say the Lords Prayer they get kicked out of school.
Tuberville said of the Congressional Democrats: “They fight for something and they stick to it; but the Republicans hide under the table when there is a fight.”
“The only guy we have fighting Socialism is Donald Trump,” Tuberville said. “I want to take that stick out of his hands and give him a baseball bat.”
“The one thing I am passionate about is education,” Tuberville said. “Kids are being indoctrinated in to Socialism. They don’t teach history civics or anything like that.”
“We have got a lot of problems and we need to solve them; because they are going to get tougher and tougher if we keep kicking the can down the road,” Tuberville told the crowd of sixty St. Clair County Republicans and supporters. “If we don’t change education, what we do at the election won’t matter. Look at the people behind Bernie Sanders. They are 18 to 35 year olds.”
“Tomorrow is term limit day,” Tuberville said. “I am doing pretty good in the polls because they spent $3 million against me in the last two weeks.”
“We are not taking care of our veterans,” Tuberville said. “When they come home they ought to be give a health care to go to any doctor or hospital you want to go.”
Tuberville said that the government is picking up the healthcare for illegal aliens as soon as they cross that border. Veterans should be taken care of first. “We are losing 22 veterans a day to suicide.”
“Bernie Sanders doesn’t get the big money donors but he raises big bucks and his largest contributors are the teachers unions,” Tuberville said. “I wonder why we are trending toward socialism.”
Tuberville denied being in favor of amnesty for illegals. “If you here illegally you go back across the line and have to work to get in here legally.”
Tuberville said that gun control is part of the socialist agenda, because, “When they start taking 70 to 80 percent of your tax money they don’t want you to be able to fight back.”
Tuberville emphasized his support for better mental healthcare.
“Our mental health program is go to jail and when they can’t afford you there they dump you on the street. We lost 60,000 to 70,000 people to drug overdoses and you don’t hear anybody talking about that.”
“I don’t know why you would be a teacher today,” Tuberville said. “There is no respect. You can’t flunk anybody. This country will give you everything you want if you will work for it, but people don’t want to do that and it is socialism.”\
“I am pro-Life,” Tuberville told the St. Clair County crowd. “We have killed 60 million babies in the last 45 years.”
After hearing that the Senate defeated a bill protected babies born alive in a failed abortion, Tuberville said. “We have lost common sense in this country.”
Tuberville voiced his support for Alabama’s ban on abortions without exceptions. “That is on the right track.”
When asked about Senator Doug Jones’ fundraiser in Europe, Tuberville said. “He is going over there to raise money. I go to Pell city and he goes to Spain.”
“Doug Jones most of his money comes from California he is not getting that much money from Alabama,” Tuberville continued. “When we beat him lets give him a zip code in California.”
Tuberville faces a crowded Republican primary field today. Senator Jeff Sessions, Ruth Page Nelson, Stanley Adair, Congressman Bradley Byrne, former Chief Justice Roy Moore, and State Representative Arnold Mooney are all running for the Republican nomination for Senate.
