Tuberville’s Military Blockade Splits Senate Republicans

Politico reports:

Tommy Tuberville’s abortion-related blockade of military promotions is uncomfortably splintering both the Senate GOP and Alabama Republicans. Now they’ll spend the summer stewing about it. The Alabama senator refused to allow any of the more than 250 stalled military promotions to quickly advance, retribution for the Defense Department allowing paid leave for abortions.

Because of Tuberville’s blockade, the Marine Corps is now running without a commandant, the highest-ranking officer of the branch, for the first time in over 150 years. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) explored going around Tuberville’s hold and forcing a vote this week on confirming the nominee to that post, an incredibly rare move for the minority party.

Ultimately, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell successfully argued against it, in part because of the precedent it would set for the chamber’s minority party to force votes.

Read the full article.

GOP splits further over Tuberville’s military blockade as it stretches through summer https://t.co/UP0bNSrNnj

— POLITICO (@politico) July 31, 2023