Senate

Warren blasts Tuberville’s holds as ‘undermining national security’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Thursday accused Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) block of military promotions of threatening national security.

“What Senator Tuberville is doing is undermining our national security,” Warren said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Tuberville’s hold is in protest of a Pentagon policy that covers travel expenses for abortion care. It has gone on for about six months and has held up more than 300 military promotions. 

“Now, for Senator Tuberville to turn around and try to attack the military, as somehow it’s OK to leave these places blank, I want to remind him, he voted for every one of these people in committee,” Warren said. “If he had a problem with it, he had an opportunity to raise it.”

Earlier this week, the secretaries of the Navy, Air Force and Army called on Tuberville to end his hold in a Washington Post op-ed. Like Warren, they accused him of undermining national security.

“Any claim that holding up the promotions of top officers does not directly damage the military is wrong — plain and simple,” the three secretaries wrote.