Five Senate Republican defense hawks turned on Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) on Thursday, publicly slamming him on the Senate floor for his hold on military promotions over the Pentagon’s refusal to negotiate on its pro-abortion policy.
The Republican senators included Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Todd Young (R-IN), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and Joni Ernst (R-IA).
Tuberville exercised his hold on the Senate’s ability to confirm on a blanket basis several hundred military promotions after the Biden Pentagon issued a policy that would pay for the travel, time off, and accommodation for service members traveling for abortions.
The Biden Pentagon issued the policy after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Tuberville believes the policy violates the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funds from funding abortions. His hold does not prevent the Senate from confirming any military promotion on an individual basis, just from the blanket confirmation of hundreds at a time.
One by one, each senator criticized Tuberville and called for a motion to vote on a military officer up for promotion. Tuberville objected to each motion.
Romney called Tuberville’s hold an “abuse of the power we have as senators.”
The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway previewed the senator’s move in a post:
I’m hearing McConnell deputies and allies, including Lindsay Graham, Joni Ernst, Todd Young, and Dan Sullivan, told colleagues today they’re planning an attack on Tommy Tuberville’s hold on military promotions, modeled after Elizabeth Warren’s attack a few months ago. Tuberville has blocked unaccountable, review-free unanimous consent for military promotions — all due to the Pentagon’s completely illegal abortion funding policy. During his hold on this easy approval (that would otherwise occur without even a vote) it’s been discovered that more than 40% of the nominees are beholden to DEI and other left-wing ideology at odds with an effective fighting force. The plan to run interference for Biden admin and its woke Pentagon is reportedly scheduled for 6p tonight. Just fyi. We’ll see who exactly is involved and what happens.
And conservative lawyer and strategist Rogan O’Handley also sounded the alarm in advance, posting with a siren emoji:
Lindsay Graham Joni Ernst Todd Young Dan Sullivan All 4 Senators are potentially planning to backstab Sen. Tommy Tuberville for holding up Biden’s DEI military appointments Just in case you didn’t already despise Lindsey Graham enough
Tuberville’s holds have frustrated the Biden administration and Democrats, but this was the first time Republicans had voiced their opposition so publicly.
Tuberville earlier spoke in defense of his holds, laying out his case:
Nine months ago the Pentagon announced announced by memo that they would start using our taxpayer dollars to facilitate abortion. The Pentagon is now paying for travel and extra time off for service members and their dependents to get get to get abortions. Congress never voted for this. We also never appropriated the money for this. There is no law that allows them to do this. In fact, there is a law that says they can’t do this.
One more time. There is a law that says they can’t do this. Created in this room. It’s 10 USC Section 1093. It says the only time the Pentagon can spend taxpayer dollars on abortion is in cases of rape, incest, and threat to the health of the mom. So this is a policy that is illegal and immoral. This is about life. And it’s also about the rule of law. It’s about our Constitution. It’s about whether we make laws at the Pentagon, or whether we follow the Constitution.
This is also about the integrity of our military. The only thing in this world honor more than our military is the constitution. We all swore to uphold the Constitution I also feel very strongly about the obligation to uphold it every day in this room. I cannot simply sit idly by while the bottle administration injects politics and our military, again injects politics and our military from the White House and spends taxpayer dollars on abortion.
The only power that a senator in the minority has is to put a hold on a nomination. The only thing I’m not the first person to do this holds on nominations happen all the time. Hold on military nominations have happened many many, many, many times before.
Typically they don’t last as long because the administration will work with a senator until the issue is resolved. But that has not happened this time. Zero negotiation. Abortion is the most important thing to the Democrats that they have. And they won’t negotiate it one more time. Abortion is the most important thing that Democrats have and they will not negotiate.
This has been going on for nine months. Every day this continues as a day that Democrats think abortion is more important than the nomination and our military. I support many of these nominees and I agree that these are very, very important jobs but we could have been voting on these nominees the entire nine months. The Senate has had more than 90 days off this year, not including weekends. Each nomination could take as little as two hours.
In fact, tomorrow we’ll be voting on three of the most important nominees that we forced the leader of the Senate to bring it to the floor. The nominees at the very top ought to be voted on anyway. These jobs are too important not to receive the advice and consent of the Senate. I have to respectfully disregard disagree with my colleagues about the effect of my hold on readiness. My hold is not affecting readiness.
The Biden administration had been saying this for months, but nobody has an explanation. Nobody. The fact is no jobs. No jobs are going unfilled. Every job every job is being done in fact, General Mark Milley said recently that our readiness is the best it has been in years. Time and again generals and service members have assured me that they’re ready to go I believe.
So I’m going to keep my holds in place. If senators want to vote on these nominees one by one, I’m all in. I’m happy to do that. But I will keep my hole in place until the Pentagon follows the law or the Democrats change the law.
This is about our Constitution. This is about the rule of law. That’s what we’re about in here. It’s about the integrity of our military. It’s about keeping politics, politics out of the military. I did not put it in the military. Joe Biden. Inspector Austin put politics in the military. And it’s about the right to life. These are some of the most important things in the world to me.
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Note: This article was updated to note that Mitt Romney represents Utah, not Massachusetts, in the U.S. Senate.
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