U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville‘s more than six-month hold on hundreds of promotions of U.S. Military officers has lead the Secretary of the Navy to accuse the Alabama Republican lawmaker of “aiding and abetting communist and other autocratic regimes around the world.” That charge follows a Washington Post op-ed by the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force alleging Tuberville’s actions as “putting our national security at risk.” The Secretaries’ rare public remarks have led to other military experts, and political experts, speaking out against Tuberville, with one calling his actions “dereliction of duty.”
U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro told CNN Tuesday evening, “I would never imagine that one of our own Senators would actually be aiding and abetting communist and other autocratic regimes around the world. This is having a real negative impact and will continue to have a real negative impact on our combat readiness, and that’s what the American people really need to understand.”
Secretary Del Toro’s remarks prompted retired U.S. Army Europe Commanding General Ben Hodges to accuse Senator Tuberville of “Dereliction of duty,” despite the far-right Alabama lawmaker having never served in America’s Armed Forces.
READ MORE: Tommy Tuberville Pledged to ‘Donate Every Dime I Make When I’m in Washington’ to Vets – He Hasn’t
Senator Tuberville’s explanation for why he has imposed a blockade around all Military promotions requiring Senate confirmation has changed over the past few months.
Initially, Tuberville claimed his blockade was in response to the Pentagon’s policy to reimburse travel expenses of any service member needing to go out of state to obtain abortion-related health care services. Last month, it mutated into a claim that the U.S. Congress has not followed the U.S. Constitution since Donald Trump left the Oval Office. And more recently, it has become a campaign against what he has labeled the “woke” policies of the Biden administration – which quickly turned into personal attacks on individual U.S. Military officers awaiting promotion.
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel and Iraq War combat veteran who sits on the U.S. Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, blasted Tuberville via social media.
“Senator Tuberville, several times: ‘My hold isn’t hurting military readiness.’
Three service secretaries: ‘You’re wrong.’
What more does Senator Tuberville need to hear?”
Retired Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO, Wesley Clark, praised the service chiefs for speaking out, called Tiberville’s holds “extremely damaging.”
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, blasted Tuberville Wednesday.
“Here’s what the Tuberville fiasco tells us – there is NOTHING the GOP cares more about than controlling women’s health care,” he wrote. “Republicans are clearly willing to do anything – even compromise our military readiness – in order to ban abortion.”
Political scientist Norman Ornstein, co-author of a book on political extremism, called Tuberville an “asset to Vladimir Putin, traitor to every American value.”
His remarks were tied to comments Sen. Tuberville made Tuesday, suggesting that because Secretary Del Toro sat in his office as part of his confirmation process he should not be speaking out against him now.
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