Tuberville Finally Drops Sweeping Hold On Military Promotions After 10 Months

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) announced that he is finally lifting his one-man blockade on more than 400 military promotions.

MSNBC’s Sahil Kapur said Tuberville made the announcement off-camera Tuesday afternoon.

“This had been in place, this so-called hold, since February, preventing normally routine military promotions, which are approved by unanimous consent in the Senate, from moving forward out of protest for the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy,” Kapur reported, continuing:

He had insisted that the Pentagon cannot and should not fund travel for those service members trying to go out of state to get an abortion. The Department of Defense vociferously objected to his argument, saying that service members have to be treated equally, and they could not create discriminatory treatment when it comes to healthcare for the purpose of a dispute over abortion. This means that over 400 promotions, three-star and below, can move forward in the senate.

Kapur said that military promotions four-star and above will still need to be voted on in the Senate.

“So, this is not a 100% backdown from Tommy Tuberville, but a major retreat from the senator who had insisted he would not back down on this, who insisted despite heavy criticism from the Pentagon, from many Republicans leaders on his side, that he was going to hold firm on this,” Kapur said. He continued:

This came in the midst of a threat by fellow senators to effectively change the rules for the remainder of this Congress and get around him. He knew he had been outnumbered, he knew that this would not persist for long, one way or another. The question for him was would he force them to hold that vote and suffer that embarrassing defeat on the floor of the Senate, or would he back down and preempt it? It looks like Tommy Tuberville has now backed down and these promotions can move forward, the military service members whose families had been in limbo for months and months can move on with their lives.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.