Kyle Whitmire

Birmingham

Political Commentator and Columnist at AL.com

Columnist for @aldotcom. 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner. I write about character, cruelty and corruption.

Articles

Alabama GOP chairman John Wahl has a Tennessee driver license, will help decide Tuberville residency

1 day ago | al.com | Kyle Whitmire

This is an opinion column. Stories involving Alabama Republican Party chairman John Wahl tend to wind up in strange places. Like, how did a butterfly farmer — real thing — become one of Alabama’s most powerful political figures? Or how can someone vote with an ID they made themselves — also real — and not wind up in jail?
If it turns out Tommy Tuberville is really a Florida man, blame the Alabama GOP

1 week ago | al.com | Kyle Whitmire

This is an opinion column. In Alabama, if you want a hint of what the future might be like, look to the past. This time, we don’t have to look back that far. In 2023, David Cole went to jail because the Alabama Republican Party Executive Committee didn’t do its job. And the Alabama Republican Party lost a House seat for their mistake, too. Oops.
Why did Tommy Tuberville vote in Florida if he lived in Alabama?

1 week ago | al.com | Kyle Whitmire

This is an opinion column. Last week, I challenged Sen. Tommy Tuberville to clear his residency questions once and for all by doing something that most Alabamians would be able to do without any problem — by showing whether he paid state income taxes for each of the last seven years. To run for the U.S. Senate, he had to live in Alabama only for a day before the 2020 election, but to run for governor in Alabama, residency requirements say a candidate has to live in the state for seven years.
Can Tommy Tuberville prove his Alabama residency by sharing state tax returns?

2 weeks ago | al.com | Kyle Whitmire

This is an opinion column. Congratulations, Tommy Tuberville! You’re Alabama’s next governor. Maybe. Everybody in the state’s political class seems to be accepting it, including those on the fifth stage of grief. That includes other politicians who want the job, political consultants looking for a payday, and lobbyists and their clients struggling to figure out where to put their money. Even the weary Big Mules seem to think they’ll have to pull your wagon.
Let Harvard take care of itself

3 weeks ago | al.com | Kyle Whitmire

This is an opinion column. I get the impression from national headlines and so much social media flag-rallying that I’m supposed to be rooting for Harvard now. But I’m having a hard time getting excited about it. Last week, the White House sent that lodestar of higher education a testy letter declaring war. So far, Trump has frozen more than $2 billion in federal grants and contracts with the institution, and he has threatened to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status.
Trump vs. Black History: DEI purge puts Alabama history in the crosshairs

1 month ago | al.com | Kyle Whitmire

This is an opinion column. When the U.S. Air Force pulled the Tuskegee Airmen from its training curriculum, Alabama Sen. Katie Britt demanded it be put back. Good for her. Really. Thank you, senator. Britt could have left it there. But she just had to assign blame and she sure wasn’t going to put it on the president.
Tommy Tuberville sells taxpayers on Trump tariffs

1 month ago | al.com | Kyle Whitmire

This is an opinion column. Tommy Tuberville’s first post-college football job was to start a hedge fund with a man named David Stroud. That venture ended with Stroud, who did not have a license to deal securities, being sentenced to prison and Tuberville paying to settle a lawsuit from irate investors who accused the two men of fraud. Tuberville claimed he didn’t have much to do with the business, didn’t understand what it did and only lent his name to it.
Trump puts Smithsonian institutions, including National Zoo, in culture war crosshairs with executive order

1 month ago | al.com | Kyle Whitmire

This is an opinion column. Last week, President Donald Trump assigned his other vice president, J.D. Vance, to oversee an important task. No, not another trip to Greenland. Vance got a chilly reception there. No, not more White House chit-chat with Ukrainian officials, either. It turns out, there’s a real reason to keep J.D. away from Oval Office couches. And no, not another bombing run on Houthi terrorists.
Return of the Ten Commandments

1 month ago | al.com | Kyle Whitmire

This is an opinion column. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A bill before the Alabama Legislature would require the Ten Commandments to be displayed prominently in every Alabama school. The legislation follows a call by Gov. Kay Ivey in her most recent State of the State Address to hang the Almighty’s Top Ten in classrooms throughout the state. That sensation you might be experiencing is Alabama deja vu, where our state ignores history in the hopes that we might repeat it.
Whitmire: Why do people get mad when bad things don’t happen?

1 month ago | al.com | Kyle Whitmire

This is an opinion column. Last weekend, I watched from afar as storms again raked their claws across Alabama, cutting gashes as they went. This time, the weather had struck after days of warnings from the National Weather Service and TV meteorologists. As tornadoes were tearing through communities and trashing neighborhoods and, yes, trailer parks, I flicked my thumb across social media feeds to check on friends back home. And that’s when I saw something I had not expected — people who were mad.