On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said that Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) hold on defense nominees until the DOD rescinds its abortion policy or if Congress votes to codify that policy into law is hurting military readiness, and President Joe Biden has no plans to call Tuberville to attempt to find a compromise to end the impasse and Tuberville doesn’t need one.
After playing a clip of Tuberville saying that if he were President, he would have reached out in an attempt to come to a compromise, host Kaitlan Collins asked, “Does President Biden have any plans to call Sen. Tuberville, and do you think a call would resolve this?”
Kirby responded, “I know of no such call on the schedule, Kaitlan, and frankly, he doesn’t need to get a call from the White House to know that it’s the wrong thing to hold up more than 250 officers from either achieving higher rank or new assignments. My goodness, that picture you showed just a minute ago, let me tell you, by the end of September, there [are] going to be three more empty photo frames on that board on the wall in the Pentagon because officers are going to be timed out of their jobs, they’re going to have to retire, and there won’t be a successor confirmed by the Senate to take their place. And that has real impact on the military readiness around the world, across all the services. … This is foolish, and he’s playing politics with the military.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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