Tipsheet

Tommy Tuberville Fends Off Attempts From Fellow Republicans to Drop Holds

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  November 02, 2023 7:30 AM

While Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) faced another victory of sorts on Tuesday night when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced individual votes on military nominations, he ended up having to also contend with pushback from members of his own party on Wednesday night. Into the late hours, several members tried to introduce military nominations for Tuberville to approve, though he still rejected to confirming them via unanimous consent.

Tuberville has been engaged in holding up military nominations for months now in response to the Pentagon's illegal abortion policy. Under the policy, which violates 10 U.S.C. 1093, servicemembers and their dependents can receive paid time off for abortions. Travel expenses are covered if the abortion takes place in another state and there is no gestational limit.

By the night's end, Tuberville had blocked 61 nominations, CNN's Manu Raju posted close to 11:00pm. The effort to confirm nominations came from Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan (AK), Todd Young (IN), Lindsey Graham (SC), and Joni Ernst (IA).

Fox News' Chad Pergram posted some memorable quotes from Tuberville during the Wednesday night debate about standing strong on such holds.

Naturally, the mainstream media had a field day. Thursday morning's edition of POLITICO Playbook was titled "Tommy Tuberville vs. everybody."

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As it dramatically resd, highlighting the in-fighting, with original emphasis:

SENATE REPUBLICANS TURN ON TUBERVILLE — For weeks now, Senate Democrats and the White House have lambasted Sen. TOMMY TUBERVILLE for holding up military promotions in protest of a controversial military policy on abortion care for service members. Now, the Alabama Republican’s blockade is running headfirst into a new wave of resistance from his own party.

A group of Senate Republicans took to the chamber floor last night to ask for unanimous consent to confirm dozens of the more than 350 nominations languishing in the backlog. One by one, they read service members’ bios and praised their acumen. And one by one, Tuberville objected.

The intraparty conflict got ugly. Sen. DAN SULLIVAN (R-Alaska) — who had been trying to work with Tuberville to assuage his concerns, but ultimately led the GOP confrontation of him last night — accused his colleague of conducting a “national security suicide mission.”

“I’m as pro-life as they come!” Sullivan insisted, a reference to Tuberville’s indignation over the Pentagon paying for abortion-related travel for troops stationed in states where the procedure is banned. “America needs to have … our most combat-capable leaders on the field” ASAP, he said, going on to accuse Tuberville of endangering the nation.

At one point, Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM held up a photo of LAURA LENDERMAN, who is supposed to be promoted to lieutenant general and deputy commander of Pacific Air Forces. While the South Carolina Republican noted that she’s flown “thousands” of hours and has “zero” to do with the Pentagon’s abortion policy, Tuberville still objected.

“You just denied this lady a promotion — you did that,” Graham snarled, launching into a tirade about how Tuberville is setting a new precedent of holding service member advancements hostage over policy disagreements — one that Democrats could adopt someday when Republicans control the White House. “Who the hell wants to serve in the military when your promotion can be canned over something you have nothing to do with? … If you think it’s illegal, go to court!”

Democrats have pulled such stunts before on the floor to showcase Tuberville’s blockade, which military leaders have argued undermines U.S. military readiness and operations as well as long-term retention efforts. But yesterday was the first time we saw such a public split within the Senate GOP.

So what’s different this time? Frustration with Tuberville in GOP circles has been simmering on the back burner for months. But with war in the Middle East, Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, escalating tensions between China and Taiwan, and even FBI Director CHRISTOPHER WRAY warning lawmakers this week of new threats to the U.S. following Hamas’ attack, it finally boiled over.

In addition to Sullivan's proposal being revealed last week, so was a plan from Democrats to go about getting nominations confirmed via a rules change, though it was not long after revealed that it looked increasingly less likely to pass since Republicans would need to lend their support.

As POLITICO also mentioned, again with original emphasis:

And there’s new pressure inside the Senate, too. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER backed a proposal to temporarily change chamber rules to allow most military promotions to be confirmed en bloc; that is, with a single vote. The idea — proposed by Sens. JACK REED (D-R.I.) and KYRSTEN SINEMA (I-Ariz.) — would need 60 votes on the floor, meaning nine Republicans.

So will irritated GOP senators join with Democrats to circumvent Tuberville’s holds? It’s suddenly not inconceivable. Keep watching this space.

Expect Democrats, especially Schumer, to feel emboldeened by this scene of Republicans at least appearing to be in disarray. However, Tuberville looks to be standing strong. Tuberville has not indicated he plans to loosen up his holds, and reposted forms of support several times from his political X account on Wednesday night. He has pointed out that Schumer can call up individual votes to confirm nominees, and that the pro-abortion Biden administration can change the policy, which he argues Congress has not voted on, with the senator thus fighting not just for the right to life, but the rule of law.

Tuberville still has significant support from other Republicans, not just in the Senate, but in the House as well. Grassroots leaders and veterans also support Tuberville with sticking to the rule of law and right to life with his holds, as do Alabama voters.

He also reposted concerns about the military nominees. It's not merely abortion tourism that has made the Biden administration's military so woke when it comes to also Critical Race Theory (CRT), drag shows, Pride month events, and priorities over pronoun usage.

As of Thursday morning, Tuberville's most recent repost comes from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who lamented another form of Republican disunity. Also on Wednesday night, the Republican-controlled House voted to help kill the motion to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), with 22 Republicans voting to do so, and 13 not voting.

Greene had brought such a resolution last week.