Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) hit back at the Biden administration and Democrats attacking him over his hold on blanket Senate confirmations of military promotions, noting that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) could bring those nominations to the Senate floor at any time.
“@SenSchumer could put these nominations on the floor whenever he wants to,” Tuberville posted on X on Thursday.
. @SenSchumer could put these nominations on the floor whenever he wants to. https://t.co/Ol41y318Xs
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) September 7, 2023
While Tuberville is blocking unanimous consent of about 300 senior military official promotions, Schumer could get around the block by bringing nominations to the Senate floor for a vote individually. However, he has not opted to do so, reportedly out of concern it would set a precedent for all of the nominations and eat up time for other priorities.
Tuberville began his block about six months ago, in response to the Biden Pentagon enacting a new policy that would pay for troops and their family members to take time off and travel to a state for abortions if they lived in a state where they could not get one.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
The Biden administration made this move after Dobbs v. Jackson overturned Roe v. Wade, in order to ensure that service members and their families could have access to abortions. Tuberville maintains that the Pentagon’s policy violates the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the federal government from funding abortions except in the case of rape, incest, or if the mother’s life is at risk.
He has said he would drop his hold on the nominations if the Biden Pentagon rescinds its policy, or if Democrats can enact the policy into law, but the Biden administration and Democrats have not budged.
This week, the Biden administration upped their pressure on Tuberville, with three civilian service secretaries writing in an op-ed in the Washington Post that Tuberville’s hold was harming national security. Two of the secretaries — of the Navy and the Air Force — subsequently bashed Tuberville on CNN, with Navy Secretary Carlos del Toro accusing Tuberville of “aiding and abetting communists and autocratic regimes.”
Navy Sec. Carlos Del Toro not holding back on Tuberville:
— Connor O'Brien (@connorobrienNH) September 6, 2023
“For someone who was born in a communist country, I would have never imagined that actually one of our own senators would actually be aiding and abetting communists and other autocratic regimes.” https://t.co/XiX9Dp6Pgz
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said on CNN, “We are safe and we are prepared” but accused Tuberville of doing “significant damage to our national security.”
The Secretary of the Air Force says Tuberville’s actions are causing significant damage to national security pic.twitter.com/Ic9vPvEhGY
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 5, 2023
Tuberville responded to the op-ed, saying, “My holds are not affecting national security, no matter what national pundits are saying.”
“@SecAFOfficial, @SECNAV, and @SecArmy would rather attack me in a newspaper than have an actual conversation. Just another example of woke propaganda,” he added.
My holds are not affecting national security, no matter what national pundits are saying.@SecAFOfficial, @SECNAV, and @SecArmy would rather attack me in a newspaper than have an actual conversation.
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) September 6, 2023
Just another example of woke propaganda. pic.twitter.com/ty5ug481iW
Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) supported his colleague, calling del Toro’s comments “totally inappropriate.”
“@SecDef can solve this immediately by rescinding DoD’s abortion travel policy,” he posted on X.
.@SECNAV's remarks are totally inappropriate.@SecDef can solve this immediately by rescinding DoD's abortion travel policy.
— Senator Ted Budd (@SenTedBuddNC) September 6, 2023
And nothing is stopping @SenSchumer from bringing these officers to the floor today but his own political agenda. https://t.co/DxbdJ9Fm60
As the Biden administration has continued to attack him, Tuberville has broadened the reason for his hold from the Pentagon’s abortion policy to the nominees for promotion themselves, noting that some of them have promoted woke policies during their time in the Pentagon.
Tuberville recently told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement:
I warned the Pentagon that I would hold their most senior nominees if they broke the law. They did it anyway, and forced my hand. Since then, Chuck Schumer and the Biden Administration have refused any serious negotiations, and so this situation has dragged on.
This has given me more time to look more closely into the background of some of these nominees, and I have deep concerns about some of them. I will continue this process of oversight and I will announce my opposition to specific nominees in the weeks ahead.
He has also recently pointed out that some generals and admirals up for promotion make as much as $300,000 while those who fought the nation’s wars have made less than $40,000.
.@TTuberville: “We’ve got generals and admirals making $300,000, and we got young men and women that are fighting these 20-year wars that we just came out of making less than $40,000 a year — less than welfare wages. We have got to make adjustments to our military.”
— Kristina Wong 🇺🇸 (@kristina_wong) September 6, 2023
He also has pointed out that Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) once held up over 1,000 military nominations to pressure the Pentagon into promoting then-Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who sparked an impeachment inquiry into Trump for a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, claiming that Trump tried to bribe him for political dirt on Hunter Biden.
. @SenDuckworth held over 1,000 nominations over this guy.https://t.co/mygZ49fCe9 https://t.co/8GWJeAKdCi
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) September 6, 2023
Vindman responded that Duckworth was exercising “oversight” in doing so.
Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on Twitter, Truth Social, or on Facebook.