Iraq War Vet Flames ‘Political Suicide Bomber’ Tommy Tuberville Over Military Holds

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is still holding up hundreds of military nominees, even after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. Now, one Iraq War veteran is likening him to a “political suicide bomber.”

While appearing on MSNBC’s Deadline White House with host Nicolle Wallace, Paul Rieckhoff, founder and executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and a veteran himself, went off on Tuberville and his refusal to end his hold, even while members of his own party including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have asked him to stand down. Rieckoff’s words were harsh:

… [W]e had 37 attacks and counting on U.S. troops in Syria and in Iraq. And we’ve got 300 more headed to the Middle East now. So this is happening at a time when Putin is grateful. Hamas loves this. Tuberville is doing the work of our enemies. He’s undermining our national security and he’s not backing down. So an off-ramp is unlikely. What the Democrats and Republicans, I hope, can do is figure out a way to run him over. He’s a political extremist. He’s kind of like a political suicide bomber. You can’t negotiate with a terrorist. He’s not going to back down. The question is, what do the Democrats – and I hope the Republicans too – do to steamroll him? Because he’s not going to move.

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blasted Tuberville on the Senate floor after the news of the hospitalization of Gen. Eric Smith, whose nomination as Commandant of the Marine Corps is one of the hundreds currently stalled. Schumer said the Alabama Republican was now responsible for an “avoidable emergency”:

Now normally, Lt. Gen. Mahoney would be able to immediately step in [for Gen. Smith] to temporarily serve as [acting] commandant. But unfortunately, because of the blanket hold of just one senator, Senator Tuberville, that cannot happen. The situation at the Marine Corps is precisely the kind of avoidable emergency that Senator Tuberville has provoked through his reckless holds.

Watch the video above via MSNBC.