U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), the far-right hard-core conservative who since February has been single-handedly holding up the promotions of over 300 U.S. Military officers, has now expanded his fight from a battle against the Pentagon’s policy supporting service members needing to travel out-of-state to obtain abortion services into a war whose targets are individuals: career U.S. Military officers awaiting promotions.
Among the reasons for the attacks: one officer allegedly “joined a ‘Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion panel,'” and one “celebrated Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”
“There is nobody more military than me,” “Coach” Tuberville infamously said last month, when his hit list holding up promotions requiring Senate confirmation had just reached 265 U.S. Military officers. Senator Tuberville’s remarks were not well-received, especially since, as multiple news outlets reported, he had never served in America’s Armed Forces, and had been caught misrepresenting his father’s World War II military record.
“I don’t care if they promote anybody,” Tuberville admitted last week. “To be honest, we got 44 four-star generals right now. We only had seven in World War II. So I think we’re a little overloaded to begin with.” In a wild rant the Alabama GOP Senator also suggested another reason he is blocking the promotions is because – he alleges – the Senate hasn’t followed the U.S. Constitution since Trump left office.
Since he began his lone-wolf attack on the Pentagon’s policy – instituted in response to GOP state legislatures around the country imposing bans on abortion – Tuberville has insisted his only goal was to get the U.S. Military to rescind its policy of reimbursing service members for travel expenses if they have to go out-of-state to get the health care they need.
Up until now.
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“The Biden Administration’s liberal and woke policies are the real threat to military readiness. I’m trying to keep politics out of the military,” Senator Tuberville claimed on social media Tuesday evening – as he reposted a thread of tweets from a far-right dark money group created to derail President Joe Biden’s nominees across many parts of the federal government, from the executive branch to the judicial branch, and now, to the Armed Forces.
Sen. Tuberville, who has a history of defending white nationalism, also reportedly emailed out those posts, which attack career military officers’ comments supporting LGBTQ equality, embracing diversity, pledging to address systemic racism, and more.
In May, Tuberville declared white nationalists are simply “Americans.” He also said, “I look at a white nationalist as a, as a Trump Republican. That’s what we’re called all the time.”
The first attack promoted by Tuberville cites a 2017 article at MilitaryTimes.com that reads: “USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) Commanding Officer Capt. Craig Clapperton speaks about the importance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender celebration.”
These officers are not political appointees. As some of the attacks reveal, these officers have been serving in America’s Armed Forces for years, well before Joe Biden won the presidency.
“Sen. Tuberville takes a new approach to defending his hold on military nominations by emailing out this thread personally attacking individual military officers up for promotion,” wrote Politico’s national security and military reporter Paul McLeary.
“If you thought Sen. Tuberville might back off his military promotions blockade any time soon…,” added Punchbowl News’ senior congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio. “His office just blasted out this thread highlighting criticisms of the nominees themselves. Remember — these nominations are typically approved by unanimous consent.”
The attacks on America’s military officers come from The American Accountability Foundation, a conservative dark money opposition research operation co-founded by “a longtime Beltway operative specializing in opposition research.”
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Last year The New Yorker’s award-winning investigative reporter Jane Mayer called the American Accountability Foundation, “The Slime Machine Targeting Dozens of Biden Nominees.”
So what attacks on U.S. Military officers is Tuberville promoting?
The American Accountability Foundation calls the hundreds of officers awaiting promotions, “one of the WOKEST slates of military nominees ever assembled.”
“Biden’s agenda is clear,” they add.
Of course, any president, although being Commander-in-Chief, rarely would get directly involved in the promotion of a flag officer, certainly not hundreds of them. But as Mayer pointed out, “the A.A.F.’s approach represents a new escalation in partisan warfare, and underscores the growing role that secret spending has played in deepening the polarization in Washington.”
“The A.A.F., which is run by conservative white men, has particularly focussed on blocking women and people of color,” Mayer added. She notes, “Evan Hollander, then the spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, told The Hill that, ‘for a group that purports to concern itself with ethics, using fake identities, misrepresenting themselves as Congressional staff and surreptitiously recording meetings is hypocritical in the extreme.'”
The American Accountability Foundation in a series of 21 posts (so far) attacked U.S. Military officers (some examples below) for reasons including a promise to “promptly address the full spectrum of systemic racism.”
The AAF attacked a Brigadier General for saying, “we’re gonna continue to strive to make sure that we’re the most diverse force in the Army,” “Our army is built on the foundation of diversity,” and, “we’re the most powerful army in the world, and we get that power from having a force that looks like different people.”
The AAF also attacked a Colonel for promoting “an article on how the military was ‘preparing’ for Trump.”
See more of AAF’s posts that Sen. Tuberville promoted below or at this link.