Biden: Senator Tuberville's hold on military nominees is "bizarre"

AP Photo/Butch Dill

Joe Biden told Democrat donors in California on Monday night that Senator Tommy Tuberville’s hold on military appointments due to the Department of Defense’s abortion policy is unprecedented and bizarre. Tuberville has placed holds on military appointments since March. He objects to taxpayer funding of abortion services in the military. He continues on with his protest.

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Back in March, I wrote about Tuberville’s plan. I wrote, “Tuberville is a one-senator blockade against 160 senior military promotions who is refusing to budge on the issue of the policy he calls illegal that reimburses travel for abortion and provides paid time off for military members or their family members who choose to have an abortion. Tuberville is making a point that taxpayer-funded abortion is illegal.” Other senators agree that taxpayer-funded abortion is illegal. Back in the days when Joe Biden was pro-life, he also thought it was illegal. He supported the Hyde Amendment, one of only a few Democrats to do so when he served in the U.S. Senate. Then in 2019 he decided to run for president and his support for the Hyde Amendment ended. So much for being a devout Catholic, eh? When push came to shove, Biden folded like a cheap suit.

Biden didn’t have the cojones to name Tuberville’s name to those donors assembled to hear from Biden at the fundraiser, instead he referred to Tuberville as “a former football coach from Alabama” who is holding up military nominees. By now, Tuberville (R-Alabama) has blocked hundreds of nominees to senior military jobs. He objects to Biden’s policy that reimburses service members who travel to get an abortion. Tuberville says the new policy violates the Hyde Amendment.

“It’s just bizarre. I don’t remember it happening before,” Mr. Biden said in Los Gatos, California. “And I’ve been around. I know I don’t look like I’ve been around, but I’ve been around. I’ve been around a long time.”

The White House and Democratic allies are criticizing Mr. Tuberville’s stance as a threat to national security.

“We have been very clear that we need to move forward with these nominations, these critical nominations,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier Monday. “It is dangerous what he’s doing, and it is unacceptable.”

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Where are the Democrats and KJP on national security and the threat a porous border presents? *crickets*

Biden defended his position on broader abortion ‘rights’ in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case. “The right to choose should be a right [that is] left between a woman and her doctor,” he said.

Tuberville is a member of the Armed Services Committee. He said he will not remove the hold on nominees until Biden’s abortion policy is reversed or suspended. Looks like the stand-off will be around a while. We are in a presidential election cycle now and abortion is an issue both sides use during campaigns. The service members are the ones who pay the price, though, as their promotions or their retirements are stalled until the hold is removed.

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