Former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC), a Republican presidential candidate, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) holding military promotions over the Pentagon abortion policy was “using military families as political pawns.”
Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Speaking of having a strong defense and having a strong Navy, Republican Senator Tommy Tubberville is currently and for months has been holding up more than 300 military promotions in the Senate, non-political positions.”
He asked, “The military says this is hurting readiness. I know, as a military spouse, you know, military spouses are really upset about this. Why is the Republican Party tolerating this?”
Haley said, “Okay, there’s a couple of things here, Jake. Let’s speak hard truths. First of all, Department of Defense never should have done this. I’ll disagree with it, and I’ll put an end to it as Congress.”
Tapper asked, “You’re talking about the reimbursement policy for travel for abortion.”
Haley said, “Yes. Because you have to do these things through Congress. We have three branches of government for a reason. You can’t slip something in there like that and think that Congress is not going to be upset. First, I’ll put an end to that, and you’ll handle it through the proper channels. Secondly, we don’t need to be using military families as political pawns. That’s a mistake. These military members and families they sacrifice enough. They don’t need to be a pawn in Congress.”
She added, “The Department of Defense started this, but I’m not saying that Senator Tuberville is right in doing this because I don’t want to use them as pawns.”
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