White House echoes GOP dissenters on Tuberville’s Pentagon holds

The White House lauded the growing number of Republican lawmakers coming out on Thursday in opposition to Sen. Tommy Tuberville‘s (R-AL) holds on Pentagon nominations.

For months, Tuberville has held up more than 400 Department of Defense nominations in protest of the Biden administration‘s abortion policies at the Pentagon. A group of Republican senators, however, brought 61 of those nominations to the floor on Wednesday evening for voice votes, all of which were blocked by Tuberville.

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lauded that group, led by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), for their actions and read out quotes from the floor speeches of Sens. Ernst, Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Todd Young (R-IN), and Mitt Romney (R-UT).

“Nearly all of them warned of the risk we face of service members leaving military service if his blockade continues, so we agree. We’ve been very clear about this for the past several months,” Jean-Pierre told reporters. “These vacancies are causing serious damage to our military readiness and our national security, and they’re causing stress and disruption to our military families across the chain of command and for military spouses and also their families.”

“The world is too dangerous. It is too dangerous to play political games with our military,” she continued. “So, we are pleased to see that the Senate is taking action. Sen. Tuberville needs to end this damaging hold on all of our military nominees as soon as possible.”

Later in the briefing, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that Tuberville’s holds are having a “deleterious impact on families” of service members.

“Folks can’t get schools for their kids, can’t buy or rent houses, don’t know where they’re going to be living next,” he stated. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

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You can watch Thursday’s briefing in full below.