U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), facing mounting pressure from Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as well as his fellow Republican colleagues, on Tuesday announced he is releasing his near-10-month blockade more than 450 top U.S. Military officers whose promotions must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate — but he will continue to block all four-star officers, among the most important to the nation’s defense.
“I’m releasing everybody. I still got a hold on, I think, 11 four-star generals. Everybody else is completely released from me.” Tuberville told reporters Tuesday afternoon, NBC News reported. “But other than that, it’s over.”
The Alabama Republican Senator told Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio he has no regrets that he held up the promotions, pay increases, and life plans of over 450 U.S. Military officers and their families.
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“We didn’t get the win that we wanted. We’ve still got the bad [abortion] policy. We tried to stand up for the taxpayers,” Tuberville added.
Fox News Radio’s Ryan Schmelz also reports “Tuberville says he has no regrets about his tactics used in combating the DOD’s military abortion policy and responds to those saying he caved.”
Those eleven four-star generals, according to Desiderio, include the Commander of Pacific Air Forces, Commander of US Pacific Fleet, Air Component Command for INDOPACOM, Commander for Air Combat Command, the head of the Navy’s Nuclear Propulsion Program, the head of Northern Command, the head of U.S. Cyber Command, along with the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Vice Chief of Space Operations, and Vice Chief of Naval Operations.
Just last Thursday The Washington Examiner reported Tuberville “has insisted he will not be lifting his hold on every nominee and would be still enforcing holds on Biden nominees he deems ‘woke.'”
Tuberville back in August revealed his plan to target what he called “woke” Biden military nominations, claiming he was doing so to keep politics out of the military. The Alabama freshman Senator had teamed up with a right-wing dark money group, The American Accountability Foundation. AAF’s founder in 2021 told Fox News he wanted to throw “a big handful of sand” in the gears of the Biden administration.
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“I see the group right now as getting up every morning and with the goal of making it as difficult as possible for the Biden administration and their allies on the Hill to implement their agenda,” said AAF’s founder, Tom Jones.
Tuberville on social media had promoted AAF’s attacks on individual military officers, which targeted one officer who allegedly “joined a ‘Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion panel,’” and one who “celebrated Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”
Sen. Tuberville, who has a history of defending white nationalism, also reportedly had 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.”
Tuberville’s blockade was allegedly a response to the Pentagon’s policy of reimbursing service members forced to travel out of state to obtain abortion services. Tuberville opposes abortion. He admitted anger that Pentagon chiefs refused to budge or negotiate with him on the policy, which was put in place after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. Some experts have said the policy was legally required to ensure all members of the U.S. Armed Forces have equal access to health care.
But even if Tuberville had succeeded in forcing the Pentagon to scrap its policy, he would not have reduced the number of abortions service members have. He would only have reduced an already negligible dollar amount the military incurred on travel and related expenses.