Senator Tommy Tuberville said Fox News host Laura Ingraham that the US Army it was a “disaster” and “he couldn’t beat anyone right now.”

Tuberville – a former football coach who never served in the army and has no background in military tactics – made the comments while insisting the nation must build up its armed services.

“We need to grow our military,” the Republican senator said. “Our army right now, Laura, is a disaster. Absolute disaster. I couldn’t beat anyone now.”

He said that while “we have some good people in the military,” “the structure of it, the things that we did, the Democrats destroyed it.”

The larger conversation that night focused on US aid to Ukraine in its continued defense against the Russian invasion. He boasted that he always voted against supporting Ukraine. He insisted Ukraine cannot win the war against Russia and said he was excited for President-elect Donald Trump to end it.

“I can’t win, Laura,” said Tuberville. “I didn’t want to kill these people. They can’t win. They’re understaffed, they’re understaffed.”

He said Trump would “take them out of it.”

“I don’t know what they’re going to have to give up to get them out of this, but we can’t keep sending money there,” he said.

The senator expressed no concern about military aid USA sends to Israel for the ongoing war in Gaza, however. Instead, he insisted that the US must “support and supply Israel.”

Tuberville was not specific about how Democrats destroyed the military and did not explain why the US must prioritize rebuilding it when Trump ran on an explicit platform of preventing and ending armed conflict.

Trump has not indicated who he will pick to lead the Defense Department and has offered no outline of his plans for the military, other than to suggest that his comments suggest he would use they against his domestic opponents were “nice”.

This is not the first time the senator has taken a swipe at American service members. Tuberville has led a freeze on military promotions — meaning members can’t move up in rank and thus move toward higher pay — because he opposes the Pentagon’s abortion policies.

“I hated doing it. These people needed promotions. But somebody has to wake up in the White House and the Pentagon that they can’t dictate policy here in the U.S. Senate,” Tuberville said in March. “So, months ago, we stopped the admirals, generals and civilian nominees. They passed a few months — a few months turned into 11, and I’ve had this hold since they put that policy in place.”

Blue Star Families, a non-profit organization, asked more than 300 service members and their spouses about the impact Tuberville’s lockdown has had on them, according to a survey. Federal News Network. Among respondents, 57 percent of active-duty family respondents said the promotion block made them less likely to recommend military service to younger families, meaning Tuberville’s actions are indirectly obstructing military recruitment, despite his insistence that the military must be consolidated.