Chairman Inhofe and Ranking Member Reed,

It is with disappointment that I am writing to you today about past remarks I made, which have
been described in recent media reports. I had hoped to meet in person to discuss my public
service and record and sincerely hope to have the opportunity to do that soon. In the meantime,
please accept this sincere outreach. 

I have long respected your committee’s spirit of bipartisanship and collegiality, as I have prided
myself on similar traits, working with individuals from all backgrounds, viewpoints, races and
religions. Over my decades of service, I have well and faithfully executed the orders of our
leaders of all political parties.

I deeply regret comments that I made on social media several years ago.  My tweets were
completely out of character, something many of my former colleagues and friends know. I
understand that it was unprofessional to have discussed our former commander in chief in the
fashion I did. My regret, however, has nothing to do with my nomination for Undersecretary of
Defense of Policy. Rather, I have a lifetime of public service leadership and a cadre of soldiers,
sailors, airmen, marines, and civilian mentors and protégés whom I disappointed with those
comments.

Out of the 8,800 tweets I authored and hundreds of speeches I have given, the few misstatements
on Twitter, while grievous, are not indicative of who I am. They are on aberration in a four-
decade thread of faithful public service. 

As a public figure since leaving the military in 2009, leading school systems and state
government institutions; as a television and radio commentator with hundreds of appearances in
the last decade; and as an author and public speaker, I have a strong record of inclusivity and
bipartisanship in my commentary. However, I did misspeak in 2018 on Twitter in hyperbolic
conversations. There is no excuse for those comments, for which I take complete responsibility
and also fully retract and denounce.

I value all religions and faiths. I spent over three years of my life in Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo,
and Afghanistan where I helped Muslims find safe haven, build new lives, and survive war torn
landscapes. Indeed, I have fought along-side Muslim soldiers in our U.S. ranks and alongside
members of the Afghan National Security Forces. I personally invested 18 months away from
my own family to lead and provide better lives for war-ravaged Bosnian Muslims who had been
persecuted by the attacking Serb forces, as we implemented the zone of separation and
conducted stability operations. Later, the units I commanded aided Muslim Kosovar Albanians
for six months as they fled Macedonian army raids in the mountains where we welcomed them in
Kosovo and sheltered the families who had little but the clothes on their backs. I also am proud
of my work supporting the Afghan people who had been brutally oppressed by the Taliban and
Al Qaeda where I worked closely with local governments all over the country to establish better
security and governance.

I have served honorably in uniform and in combat, and after retirement from the Army, I chose
to continue my path of public service instead of accepting more lucrative defense opportunities. I
invested over four years of my life in Washington, D.C. Public School System and in North
Carolina’s Wake County Public School system where I worked tirelessly to improve the lives of
all children, especially the tens of thousands of low income students through creative
programming and strong leadership. I worked hard for all 45,000 students in Washington, DC
and 150,000 students in Wake County, especially those who are most disadvantaged.

Serving is my passion, my life’s work and I hope to continue down this path. I can guarantee that
if given the opportunity to meet and discuss these important issues, I will demonstrate to you my
strength of character and commitment to sound public policy that has driven my desire to
enhance our national and domestic security and make a difference for all races, religions, and
ethnicities.

Respectfully,

Anthony J. Tata