Five Senate Republicans took to the floor tonight to launch an offensive against Senator Tuberville over his holds on military promotions.
Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Todd Young (Ind.) and Mitt Romney (Utah) all gave speeches attacking Tuberville and listed off the names of different military officers for unanimous consent.
Tuberville stood up each time and objected. It went something like this:
Tuberville: I object
Sullivan: For people who are watching, that was the naval officer who would be in charge of the two carrier strike groups in the Middle East. We could have put him in charge, pretty important… but my colleague just objected pic.twitter.com/6WDuVfjMo2
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) November 1, 2023
Here’s more from The Hill:
A group of Senate Republicans attempted to overcome Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) blockade of more than 370 military nominations, marking the first time GOP members have attempted a maneuver of this kind.
Led by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Senate Republicans sought to move numerous promotions for military officers but were blocked by Tuberville as part of his holds that have lasted nearly eight months over the Pentagon’s year-old policy that covers travel expenses for military personnel who travel for abortion care.
“America needs to have our best players, most combat-capable leaders, on the field. And right now, that’s not happening. It needs to change,” Sullivan, a 30-year member of the Marine Corps, said on the floor, adding that 89 percent of all general officer positions in the military will be affected by the current holds by the end of the year.
The Alaska Republican added that the holds are “hugely disruptive to readiness” and that the military has a “huge readiness and retention problem,” saying that “these holds are not helping.”
“There is growing bitterness within the ranks of our military driven by this fact,” Sullivan said. “The men and women in the military who’ve served our country so well for decades … have made huge sacrifices, multiple deployments, now their careers are being punished over a policy dispute that they had nothing to do with and no power to resolve.”
“The idea that somehow some of these officers are woke and desk jockeys is ridiculous,” he added.
Republican Sens. Joni Ernst (Iowa), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Todd Young (Ind.) and Mitt Romney (Utah) joined Sullivan on the floor. All of those involved, sans Romney, have a military background.
Sean Davis said the obvious about how to end Tuberville’s opposition:
All the Biden admin has to do to eliminate Tuberville’s opposition and promote these so-called leaders is to stop using military money to kill unborn babies. And they refuse to do it, which means they want to kill unborn babies more than they want to win wars. Total psychopaths. https://t.co/K2pAQUaMFd
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) November 2, 2023
There’s another way to get the officers promoted. Actually vote on them. That’s right. Schumer’s been refusing to hold votes for these officers and now the count is nearly 400. He could have been voting on these nominees all year long but he hasn’t, and that’s not Tuberville’s fault.