‘UNHINGED’: Republicans Slam Navy Secretary Accusing Tuberville Of ‘Aiding and Abetting Communist’ and ‘Autocratic Regimes’

Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville is “aiding and abetting” both Communist and “authoritarian” regimes by holding up military nominations over abortion policy and other objections this week.

President Joe Biden’s current Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force appeared on Tuesday’s The Lead on CNN to discuss the hold on military promotions that currently has the Marine Corps, the Army, and the Navy under acting Chiefs of Staff while nominations go unconfirmed in the Senate.

Del Toro was joined on CNN by Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth. The three Biden cabinet members published a joint oped Tuesday on the subject at the Washington Post.

After Kendall told Tapper that China and other “potential adversaries” are “paying attention” to Tuberville preventing promotions, Del Toro took it one step further.

“you know, Jake, for somebody, and forgive me, for someone who was born in a communist country, I would have never imagined that actually one of our own senators would actually be aiding and abetting communist and other autocratic regimes around the world,” he said. “This is having a real negative impact and will continue to have a real negative impact on our combat readiness. And that’s what the American people truly need to understand.”

Tuberville’s fellow Republicans and conservatives, including Texas Rep. Chip Roy, are pushing back against the extreme claims from the Democrat president’s cabinet.

Conservative talk host Erick Erickson and others noted this week that Tuberville has stated he’d be interested in individual nominations being handled on a case-by-case basis, but that Democrats have taken that option off the table.

Tuberville on Tuesday night told CNN’s Manu Raju that it’s “concerning” that someone in a Secretary position would say “something like that” about a sitting Senator.

At a Pentagon briefing this week, press secretary Gen. Pat Ryder used a football analogy to describe to reporters the issue with having acting chiefs of the three services and other high level posts going unconfirmed in Congress.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.

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