Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) says Democrats “created” wars in Ukraine and the Middle East as he tries to deflect blame from his one-man blockade of military promotions.
Tuberville made the bizarre comments in an interview with Newsmax when asked about Senate Democrats considering a procedural move to defeat his blockade of more than 300 military promotions to protest a Department of Defense abortion policy.
“They need to be worried about what’s going on in Ukraine, the Middle East, the wars that their side, the Democrats, and Joe Biden have created,” Tuberville said. “You know, they want to circumvent the rules.”
Democrats are reportedly planning to introduce a standing order resolution next week which would allow the Senate to move military promotions in a group through the end of 2024, according to The Hill.
Tuberville has held up more than 360 military promotions for months and vowed to continue unless the DoD dropped its new policy of reimbursing service members who are forced to travel out of state for abortion services.
Tuberville told Newsmax that with this resolution, Democrats are trying to take away his power as a member of the minority party.
“The only power you have in the minority is to be able to have holds on something to get the attention of the other side, whether it’s Republican or Democrat,” Tuberville said. “Now that they know that I mean business when it comes to abortion in the military. We’ve never, you know, they changed this policy midstream, they didn’t give the American taxpayer the opportunity to have their representative vote on this.”
“That’s all I want, is a vote,” he added. “Just send this policy that they want to vote on it, send this policy back, then if it passes, we do what the American people elect to do. But, you know, they’re playing dictator from the White House.”
Despite Tuberville’s suggestion there will a vote on the resolution on the Senate floor. At least 60 votes are required to overcome the filibuster.
