Democrats are condemning Senator Tommy Tuberville for single-handedly blocking hundreds of military promotions over a Pentagon abortion policy.
For months, Tuberville has blocked confirmations from more than 250 Pentagon generals and flag officers being presented to the Senate. The unprecedented influence has meant the Marine Corps has no confirmed leader for the first time in 164 years.
“We won’t be having a chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or a chief of naval operations very soon,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said told ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “It makes America less safe. And why? Because of the attempt to score points domestically. It just has to stop.”
Tuberville said his blocking was a reaction to a Pentagon policy It provides paid leave and travel reimbursement for service members who need to cross state lines to receive reproductive health care, including abortions. The Department of Defense issued the directive after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe vs. Wade ruling.
Tuberville’s blockade is “more than a political ploy,” Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said on MSNBC’s The Sunday Show. The senator, who serves on the armed services and veterans’ affairs committees, said the Republican’s move “endangers national security.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a veteran, wrote for MSNBC.com on Friday that the Senate “abandoned our troops and military families” thanks to “a man who never served a day in uniform in his life.”
“This trick is shameful and disgraceful; misogynistic and sadistic; self-serving yet self-destructive,” she continued. “In other words, it’s a perfect snapshot of today’s GOP.”
Tuberville said he would push promotions if the Pentagon quits politics or if Democrats vote on legislation to end politics. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he does not support the blocking of military promotions as leverage. But Tuberville, who falsely claims the Pentagon funds abortions, said he felt no pressure from GOP leadership to change his behavior.
“I served in the Army, so I know firsthand that the Republicans were perfectly fine with me using my body as I saw fit — when I decided to use it to work on behalf of our country.” fighting wars,” said Duckworth, who lost both his legs while serving abroad in 2004. “They even allowed me to scatter pieces of it on a battlefield in Iraq in defense of this great nation.” had families.
“By taking this stance, Senator Tuberville is saying loud and clear that he either does not understand or care about the very real implications that service members could face if they do not have access to reproductive care; that he doesn’t believe the readiness of female troops affects the readiness of our military,” she continued. “That, at a time when the military is already facing an enormous recruiting challenge, he is more concerned with ingratiating himself with the marginalized in his base than with spreading the message that the armed forces care about those who who are recruiting.”
In addition to blocking military promotions, Tuberville drew bipartisan strife last week for repeatedly defending white nationalism. The senator claimed that those who believe that white people are inherently superior to other races and ethnic groups are not necessarily racists, they are simply “Americans.”
“To have a member of the US Senate speculate about what white nationalism means as if it were a harmless little thought experiment is deeply and terribly disturbing,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) said in the Senate last week . “I urge my fellow Republicans to convey to the Alabama senator the destructive effect of his words and ask him to apologize.”