Tommy Tuberville: Florida's third senator? We've written a series of fact checks about Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.). This week, we looked into whether he is a resident of the state he represents. We were prompted by the discovery that in July, Tuberville sold, for nearly $1.1 million, the last properties that he owned in Alabama. Tuberville's office says his primary residence is a house in Auburn, Ala., assessed at about $300,000, that real estate records show is owned by his wife and son. But campaign finance reports and his signature on property documents indicate that his home is actually a $3 million, 4,000-square-foot beach house he has lived in for nearly two decades in Santa Rosa Beach, located in the Florida Panhandle, about four hours' drive from Auburn. The Alabama land-sale in July was notarized by a person who lives in Santa Rosa Beach, indicating Tuberville was there on July 14. His wife, Suzanne Tuberville, a licensed real estate agent in Florida, has worked at a Santa Rosa Beach real estate firm since the start of this year; she does not have an Alabama real estate license. You can read more of our report, including the response from Tuberville's office, by clicking this link. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. Tuberville, veterans and World War II Our first fact check of Tuberville started when a reader pointed out that the senator had pledged in his 2020 Senate campaign that he would "donate every dime" he made in Washington to Alabama veterans. With Tuberville now having served 2½ years as senator, that would amount to a total of $437,000 in potential donations. Tuberville is in a high-profile battle with the Biden administration over a Defense Department policy offering time off and travel reimbursement to service members who need to go out of state for abortions. We looked into whether he had met that pledge to turn over his salary to veterans causes — and discovered he had not. After that fact check, we noticed that Tuberville often described his father as a tank commander during World War II who had earned five Bronze Stars. When we investigated those claims, it turned out that Tuberville had exaggerated key elements of his father's war record. Contrary to what the senator says, his father did not join the military at age 16, did not earn five Bronze Stars and did not have the military rank to command a tank. Links to these stories can be found below. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP and @AdriUsero) or Facebook. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down to read our fact checks on Tuberville. |
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