GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville Calls Trump’s Court Room ‘The Most Depressing Thing I’ve Been In,’ Says Ex-President Is Suffering ‘Mental Anguish’

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) criticized the prosecutors in Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial for “disrespecting” the former president.

On May 13, Tuberville delivered a statement outside of the Manhattan courthouse in which he condemned the case’s prosecutors.

“First of all, I’m disappointed in the courtroom,” he shared. “I’m hearing, ‘Mr. Trump,’ ‘Mr. Trump.’ He is former President Trump. Give him some respect. I mean, that’s what that place is in there. It’s no respect.”

“Here’s what I’m seeing, too,” the Alabama GOP senator mentioned. “It is depressing. That courtroom is depressing. This is New York City, the icon of our country. And we got a courtroom that’s the most depressing thing I’ve ever been in.”

“The mental anguish is trying to be pushed on Republican candidate for the president of the United States this year,” he claimed. “That’s all this is. He’s been here a month. He’s been here a month.”

“I am disappointed in looking at the Americans – supposedly American citizens – in that courtroom, that the D.A. comes in, and he acts like it is his Super Bowl,” he stated regarding how District Attorney Alvin Bragg behaved when entering the courtroom. “And I guess it is to be noticed. But that’s what’s happening in this country.”

“The Republican candidate for President of the United States is going through mental anguish in a courtroom that’s very depressing – very depressing,” he continued. “I’m glad to stand by President Trump. I’m a friend of his. I’m here more as a – a friend than – than backing him as a candidate – as president.”

The senator’s remarks had been met with negative responses from X users.

“Tommy Tuberville attacks the jurors, suggesting they aren’t American citizens, and says they’re putting Trump through ‘mental anguish,'” the activist Jeff Fleischmann wrote in an X post. “I should hope so! Good job, jurors!”

“Tommy Tuberville, who endangered America’s national security by blocking key military promotions for months on end, demands that Trump be treated with ‘respect’ by referring to him as ‘President,'” DNC War Room stated in an X post. Tuberville famously blocked all senior military promotions in the Senate for nearly a year before relenting last December.

In May 2023, Tuberville spoke to WBHM, an NPR station in Birmingham, Alabama, saying that military recruitment had been slowing down since “the Democrats are attacking our military, saying, ‘We need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists, people that don’t believe in our agenda, as Joe Biden’s agenda.'” He also said that Democrats are “destroying” the military’s recruitment goals.

When the WBHM host Richard Banks asked the senator if he believes white nationalists should be allowed to serve, Tuberville stated that he does not view them as radicals but instead calls them “Americans.”

On February 22, Tuberville had trouble answering a question about a ruling by his state’s supreme court that embryos should be viewed as children under the law.

When he was pressed by NBC News about possible implications for people who wanted to have children through IVF, Tuberville avoided a direct response and said that “that’s for another conversation” and that “the big thing is right now, you protect — you go back to the situation and try to work it out to where it’s best for everybody,” since “that’s what the whole abortion issue is about.”

Upon acknowledging that he did not see the ruling, the senator struggled to express how the decision, which might limit IVF treatment access, would facilitate more opportunities for people to have children. He said that “it’s about the same direction” but agreed that “people need to have access” and “need more kids, while also suggesting that everyone needs “the people to have the opportunity to have kids.”