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The Biden administration accuses Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., of putting national security “in jeopardy” with his stance on advancing President Biden’s military nominations, but refuses to consider a path that would allow certain to move forward.
Fox News Digital posed the question to administration officials: Why not call on Democratic leaders controlling the Senate to push through the nominations on a case-by-case basis if national security is truly at risk? The idea was rejected outright.
A senior administration official told Fox News Digital that allowing individual promotions or appointments to be voted on one by one would set a bad precedent for future administrations and for the military in general.
The official gave no indication that the administration would change its new policy of reimbursing transportation costs for service members or their families traveling for abortions, the main reason for Tuberville’s departing holdbacks.
FORMER FOOTBALL COACH SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE RIPS MONEY’S GROWING INFLUENCE IN COLLEGE SPORTS AND WANTS CHANGE
Left to right: Sen. Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and President Biden. (Getty Images)
The suspension prevents hundreds of appointments and promotions from going through “unanimous consent,” a process that saves senators time by advancing them as a group rather than voting on each one individually. But a slower, case-by-case process would allow significant appointments to be made, potentially mitigating some of the alleged harms.
Tuberville has no intention of backing down until the Pentagon reverses the new change to its abortion funding policy.
“I said to Secretary (of Defense) Austin, if you change that, I’m going to put a damper on your admirals and generals, and I’m not going to back down until you back off the policy. I don’t think they believed me,” Tuberville told Fox. “If they want to do it, they can introduce them one by one and we can vote on them. And I would probably vote for most of them and look forward to doing it. But they didn’t want to work .with me at all.
“All they’ve tried to do is put me down and insult me and do all those things. That’s what Democrats do. That’s what this party has been doing since they’ve been in power for three years. They haven’t been ‘no’ in three years so far,” he said. “I’m not going to change my mind. They didn’t try to find me halfway. They didn’t try to compromise.”
The Biden administration, Democratic senators and a number of liberal media figures have increasingly targeted Tuberville over his power grabs since they began in February. On Monday, the Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air pinned a joint article in The Washington Post calling Tuberville’s position “dangerous” and saying he was “blocking” promotions. However, they made no mention of the ability for the Senate to vote on them individually.
SECRETARY OF THE NAVY ACCUSES SEN. TUBERVILLE COMMUNISTS ‘HELP AND ENCOURAGE’ WITH MILITARY ON ABORTION
The Pentagon in Washington, DC on May 10, 2023, in an aerial view. (DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital repeatedly reached out to each of the military branches to ask why they hadn’t called on the Senate to accept nominations for badly needed positions, but they too didn’t offer to field response. record response or did not respond at all. The office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The Biden administration official who spoke to Fox pointed to the time it would take to confirm hundreds of individual nominations: More than 300 senior DoD positions were vacant last month, a number that, according to some, could reach more than 600 from here. the end of the year if Tuberville continues to catch.
Tuberville dismissed that idea, telling Fox, “They could have had all these nominations confirmed if they had done them one at a time and if they had taken a few hours each day and had four, five or six. But they refused to do that.”
The senator then warned that the Biden administration, after overturning Roe v. Wade last year wanted to “do as many abortions as possible through federal employees” because she could control that process outside of state laws restricting abortion.
THE LEFT IS ATTACKING ME BUT THEY ARE THOSE WHO PUT OUR MILITARY AT RISK
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., speaks during a television interview before former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
He added that his ability, as a member of the minority Senate party, to prevent Democrats from imposing the policy of their choice was limited to using restraint.
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“I told them that the only way for me to lift the blockages was to bring the policy back as it was, because it was passed by Congress. Take it back and then send a bill that they want we do. vote in the Senate, and we will vote on it. And if it passes, it passes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But I will only release the holds on this base,” Tuberville said.
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