Schumer, Tuberville duel over stalled military nominees
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) filed a cloture motion Tuesday evening to advance President Biden’s nominee to serve as assistant commandant for the U.S. Marine Corps, getting in front of Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R), who was trying to force a vote on the same nominee.
Schumer also filed cloture motions to force votes on Biden’s nominees to serve as chief of naval operations and Air Force chief of staff — Lisa Franchetti and David Allvin, respectively.
Earlier Tuesday, Tuberville secured the 16 signatures he needed to advance the nomination of Lt. Gen. Christopher Mahoney to serve as assistant commandant.
The move would have taken control of the floor away from Schumer, albeit momentarily, and would have forced Democrats to vote on one of the nominees that Tuberville has held up in protest of the Pentagon’s abortion policy.
Tuberville won’t extend Schumer and other Democratic colleagues the courtesy of approving Biden’s military promotions by unanimous consent and instead has insisted on voting on them individually. He’s making the process inconvenient as possible to put pressure on the Pentagon to end its policy of providing leave and reimbursing the travel expenses of service members who cross state lines to obtain abortions.
Tuberville even went so far Tuesday as to lament the impact on military families caused by the holds he’s placed on military promotions. But he argued that he’s not to blame, pointing the finger instead at the Pentagon’s abortion policies.
“I’m all for the military,” Tuberville told “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News. “And we’re in a tough time right now, because our military’s struggling to actually put a group together, whether it’s Army, Navy, Air Force.”
He made his comments in response to criticism from Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who urged Tuberville on Tuesday afternoon to drop his holds.
“I’m sure you remember that I said this a bad idea quite a while ago. I still think it’s a bad idea, particularly applied to people who don’t make policy. So, I have been among those trying to convince Sen. Tuberville to express his opposition some other way,” McConnell said.
Tuberville pushed back on that critique.
“I don’t work for Sen. McConnell. You know, I like him fine. I work for the people of Alabama and taxpayers of this country. I thought we’re pro-life. I am,” he said.
Senate Democrats have resisted scheduling votes on nonpolitical military nominees, arguing that voting on more than 300 nominees will eat up too much floor time and set a bad precedent.
Democrats argue that nonpolitical military nominees should not become political pawns and claim that forcing senators to vote on them will inject politics into the process for considering military promotions.
But Schumer didn’t want to let Tuberville force the floor action by collecting the requisite number of signatures on a cloture petition.
Marine Corps Commandant Eric Smith suffered a heart attack earlier this week, and the procedural battle Tuesday night centered on the nomination to succeed him.
Schumer slammed Tuberville for not letting Smith’s replacement advance without a vote.
“This scary incident involving Gen. Smith shows why it’s supremely risky to play politics with military appointments as Sen. Tuberville is doing,” Schumer said. “Emergencies happen, and when they do, the chain of command must be able to respond.
“But thanks to Sen. Tuberville, there is no No. 2 at the Marine Corps to fill in. The situation at the Marine Corps is precisely the kind of avoidable emergency that … Tuberville has provoked through his blanket holds."