U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville is speaking out after five of his Republican colleagues in the Senate attempted to get around his holds on military promotions Wednesday night.
Tuberville (R-Auburn) stood and objected to each nominee for four hours as he continues to place a hold on military promotions over the Biden administration’s abortion policy for servicemembers.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham blasted Tuberville after he objected to one of the nominees.
“You’ve just denied this lady a promotion,” Graham (R-S.C.) said. “You did that. All of us are ready to promote her because she deserves to be promoted. She had nothing to do with this policy. Let me say it again: Everybody in this body could find an issue with any administration they don’t agree with. And what we’re going to do is open up Pandora’s box.”
U.S. Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) joined Graham in arguing against Tuberville’s stance.
GOP Sen. Sullivan on Tuberville’s attacks against the U.S. military: The idea that these officers are supposedly ‘woke’ or ’desk jockeys’ is ridiculous. These are some of the most combat-experienced generals and admirals we’ve ever had in our country pic.twitter.com/gI9u8aDaLX
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) November 1, 2023
After the Senate wrapped up around 11 p.m., Tuberville explained to CNN’s Manu Raju why he believes the holds are still necessary.
“It’s the only way I can get their attention,” Tuberville said. “I’ve told you all along I hate to have to do this but somebody has got to listen to us, ok? I work for the people of this country. I don’t work for a senator or a president, I work for the taxpayers of this country. We’ve polled everybody, 60% of the Democrats and Republicans do not want to pay for abortion. They don’t want their money to go to it. So this is not just a Republican issue, this is a taxpayer issue. So I’m standing up for the people of this country. I’m going to continue to do that and hopefully we can get some kind of resolution.”
The senator also reminded the reporters that they can still vote on the promotions individually.
“Again, all they have to do to get confirmed is Schumer bring them to the floor one at a time,” he said. “I got three coming today. Who did that? You’re looking at him. It wasn’t Chuck Schumer. He’s taking credit for it. I forced him to do it and I’m going to force him to do more next week. I’m just holding up a group, I’m not holding up individual nominations.”
Tuberville said the president is really the one to blame for creating this controversy.
“So start pointing back at the people like Schumer and people like Joe Biden and the [Secretary of Defense] for not doing what they’re supposed to do,” Tuberville said.
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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