Former Republican ally of President Donald Trump George Conway abandoned the GOP in 2018, but he’s kept a keen eye on what he described as a behind-the-scenes “slugfest” for the ultimate title of stupidest official in the U.S. Senate.
“It has been a brutal and protracted slugfest. But I think we can finally declare a winner in the long-running ‘Who is the dumbest United States Senator?’ competition,” said Conway, sharing a post from Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.).
Conway pointed to Tuberville’s self-appointed role America’s chief furry investigator after the Alabama senator took to the floor of the U.S. Senate this week to warn of an outbreak of furries flying airplanes.
Tuberville has mistaken the audio of pilots meowing and barking at Washington D.C.’s airport, DCA as a national security crisis of furries. As ABC News explained, this is part of a longstanding aviation joke and meme.
“Lord help us,” Tubberville proclaimed to his colleagues. “It’s terrifying when you think about this. When you walk onto a commercial flight, it’s possible that the pilot flying your plane could have a deranged fetish of dressing up like an animal.”
Tuberville went on to frame furries as part of “a bizarre subset of transgenderism.”
In the days that have followed Tuberville’s Sept. 22 speech, he’s doubled down with a series of posts to X saying he is now the victim of a left-wing political whisper-whisper campaign from the furry industrial complex.
Using all capital letters for emphasis, Tuberville said, “But the truth is, there is an ALARMING number of these DERANGED people working in our airline industry.”
Tuberville, who is running for governor of Alabama, is forgoing focus on the 71 percent of Alabama residents who struggle with basic costs in favor of his furry fantasy. Alabama is experiencing higher health care costs, climbing fuel costs and waning childcare affordability.
A 2026 United Way ALICE report (PDF) found that Alabama was 47th in the U.S., below the threshold for those in financial hardship.
“It’s more evidence of our society going to heck in a handbasket,” Tuberville said, not about the economic situation in his home state but about furries flying planes.