Tuberville refuses responsibility but says he’s blocking 300 military promotions because ‘we’re not a communist country’
U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville's list of blocked military promotions has now reached over 300, he's being rebuked by Democrats and Republicans alike, including GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and now he's refusing to take responsibility for the blockade while insisting he's put the hold on hundreds of officers because "we're not a communist country."
The Alabama freshman Republican Senator, who single-handedly has been blocking the required Senate confirmations since February for what reportedly are now 319 promotions, says Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is to blame. He told Bloomberg News each military officer's promotion takes two hours of voting by the Senate, which could take them up individually despite his block. Tuberville said voting on all the promotions would take "no time at all" to complete.
"I want to ask you another question about national security and the readiness," a Bloomberg News reporter told Tuberville. "Though we do have at the moment a position that is affected by this, it has to do with a new task force when it comes to intercontinental ballistic missiles. There is a name that has been floated for a nomination and even if it is not that individual is to two star general position, which means the Senate would have to vote on it. Isn't that quite concerning, given what we are seeing from the position of what's happening in Russia and as well as what's happening in Beijing?"
"Yeah," Sen. Tuberville responded, "it's quite concerning. Bring him to the floor. And it take two hours to confirm it. I mean, that's all I'm asking. Chuck Schumer needs to do his job. You know, when everything doesn't go perfect for you. When I was in coaching, it's not a perfect job. Things are gonna go wrong. You're going to make adjustments, make this adjustment. Let's bring them to the floor. We can do them every two hours. We can have these done in no time. They don't want to do it. They do not want to do it."
The Alabama Reflector notes, "voting on the 319 nominees would take hundreds of hours of floor time just as Congress must pass numerous bills to avert a government shutdown and lapses in federal programs before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30."
“Any attempt to blame the vacancies of these confirmed positions on Sen. Schumer is embarrassing,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said, according to the Reflector. "We don’t mind voting on people, but the implication is, ‘Why not vote on the top brass and just punish all the people below them?’ That seems to be the offer.”
Tuberville then lashed out at the Pentagon for discharging 8000 service members who refused to get vaccinated.
"They call readiness. How about the 8000 military people and their families that they ran out of the military because this vaccine mandate they pushed on 'em a year ago?" he asked Bloomberg News. "That's what I talked about readiness. That's what I call a travesty is when you run 8000 people out at one time because they won't go by mandate that they pushed on the military."
Tuberville has claimed his blockade is over the Pentagon's post-Roe v. Wade policy of reimbursing service members for necessary out-of state travel to obtain abortion services. In his Bloomberg interview he said the policy came from "a memo from the White House."
"We're not a communist country. Everything this made policy and law goes through Congress. And I told them that if you change it, I'm gonna block your admirals and generals. What at that time, there was one or two. Now we're up to 300. I think they're starting to believe me," he bragged. "That meant what I said. And again, they could be clear in these nominations one at a time, two hours each. They don't want to do that. Democrats have not been told no since they've been up here for two, two and a half, almost three years. Since the code. President Biden was elected. And now they can't handle it, but we're not gonna have any movement on my side. Unless they change this back and let's vote on it. Let's just vote on it. And if it passes, passes, done."
"They have no clue of what this policy is," Tuberville also said. "They just wanted to change it to let the American people know, 'hey, we can do what we want to,' and I'm not gonna allow them to do it. Now if they continue to do it. We're gonna have the same people in places admirals and generals. Again, there's no readiness problem. We got people in place that are doing their jobs, and sooner or later, I think they will start to come around but right now we've got a standoff."
Last month NPR reported if Tuberville does not release his holds 650 military officers' promotions may be "in limbo" by year's end.
Watch short clip of Tuberville's remarks below or at this link.