Despite mounting pressure from military and government officials, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) said nothing could talk him out of his hold on military promotions until the Department of Defense changes its policy on funding out-of-state travel for abortions.
"They don't know what pressure is. Try coaching in the SEC," Tuberville said Tuesday on Newsmax's "Greg Kelly Reports."
Tuberville pointed out how those in Congress eager to push the promotions through could have been doing so over the last several months during his hold, which only prevented all 300 promotions from being considered at once.
"Now, I'm not holding up nominations," Tuberville said. "[Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer (D-NY) can bring them to the floor one at a time as quick and as fast as he wants to, but he won't do it because that's an admittance of being wrong. So I'm not changing my mind. I'm doing this for the right reasons. I'm tired of Pinocchio Joe legislating from the White House. They're not going to do that on my watch."
Tuberville again pushed back against a common critique of his hold campaign, that it is negatively impacting military readiness.
"I've talked to generals and admirals every day. There's no problem with readiness," he said. "[I]t's a bunch of pundits out there thinking that they know what's going on, and they don't. So there's no way they're going to talk me out of this. We're going to have holds for a long, long time, and they can just get used to it."
Tuberville said the real threat to military readiness comes from the "woke" ideology that has been working its way through the ranks by being promoted by leadership.
"We're becoming more and more woke every day, and it started under [former president Barack] Obama … It's sad to see this happen," Tuberville said. "Let me tell you, if we lose, Greg, the military that we all believe in, if we lose that, we're in huge trouble. And we're headed in that direction because the problems we're having right now with readiness is not coming from anything other than all these woke policies that they're pushing. Our military is not an equal-opportunity employer. We want the best of the best … people that believe in this country, that will fight to the end for this country. But we're getting a lot of people up there that could care less about the country. They care more about their politics."
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