On Tuesday night, October 20, Tommy Tuberville held a meet-and-greet dinner at Moe's Original BBQ in downtown Mobile. The Mobile County GOP had advertised it as open to the public.
A reporter from Lagniappe, Mobile's local news outlet, waited for a turn to talk to him. Tuberville's press secretary, Jonathan Eberle, stepped in: "We're not doing press today," he said. "We're not taking questions."
The reporter got close enough to ask Tuberville directly whether he would take a question, and asked about his 2020 promise to donate his Senate salary to Alabama veterans.
"Get him out," Tuberville told his staff, Lagniappe reported.
His campaign strategist, Jon Gray, called over Mobile County Sheriff's deputies, according to Raw Story. They escorted the reporter out.
The question he wouldn't take
The question was about a promise Tuberville made over and over when he first ran for Senate in 2020: that he would give away "every dime" of his $174,000 Senate salary to Alabama veterans, their widows and their children.
In June, Lagniappe went looking for proof that he did. It found none. Six years of that salary now adds up to more than $1 million. We laid out that record in June: what he promised, how many times he promised it, and what the tax filings of his own foundation do and don't show.
Five days before the Mobile dinner, on October 15 in Guntersville, he was asked about it again. He appeared to blame tax requirements for keeping him from donating the salary, and he didn't offer any proof he'd kept the promise. He challenged his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, to release what he called his "bank returns." And, per 1819 News, he said this:
"I said that back in 2020, and I hope everybody believed it."
A pattern of shutting out questions
This wasn't the first time Lagniappe got shut out. It says it was also left off the media invite list for a recent Tuberville event in Daphne.
And Tuberville has refused for months to debate Doug Jones. In August, he told reporters there was "no reason to get up there and argue about differences of opinion." We've counted him among the Republicans on this site who won't debate their opponents this year.
So: no debate. No questions on the salary pledge. And when a local reporter asks anyway, at an event billed as open to the public, sheriff's deputies walk him out.
What happened
On October 20, at a Mobile County GOP dinner advertised as open to the public, a Lagniappe reporter asked Tommy Tuberville about his 2020 promise to donate his $174,000-a-year Senate salary to Alabama veterans. Tuberville said "Get him out," and sheriff's deputies escorted the reporter out. Lagniappe found no record that Tuberville ever kept that promise, which would now be worth more than $1 million, and when asked about it five days earlier, he appeared to blame tax requirements, offered no proof, and said he hoped "everybody believed it."
Source
Lagniappe: Tuberville boots reporter from Mobile campaign event — Scott Johnson, October 20, 2026.
