The
White House
is facing twin blockades from a pair of GOP senators and is increasingly fighting the battle
in public
.
Sens.
Tommy Tuberville
(R-AL) and
Rand Paul
(R-KY) are staging separate one-man crusades to stop the Biden administration’s work while seeking concessions.
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“This is a taxpayer-funded abortion that nobody, I mean nobody, voted for in this building or the other end of the building,” Tuberville said on the Senate floor this week. “Democrats say my hold is unprecedented. Well, I will say this — their abortion policy is unprecedented.”
Tuberville has been holding up Pentagon promotions
since February
over a Department of Defense policy that pays travel expenses for service members and their dependents to seek abortions. The policy was implemented following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that threw abortion laws back to the states and could also
pay
the criminal penalties of military doctors caught performing an illegal abortion.
Though Tuberville began the blockade five months ago, it now affects more than 260 promotions and has increasingly drawn the
White House’s attention
. Democrats seek to paint him as a clueless football coach who’s hurting national security.
“Across the nation, across the political spectrum, Americans are deeply concerned at the damage Senator Tuberville’s holds can have on our armed services and our military spouses and the children of service members with this disrespect to our national security and our military,” White House press secretary
Karine Jean-Pierre
said this week, one of many times she’s spoken out against him.
But a new front has opened up in the battle, with COVID-19 contrarian Paul staging his own blockade.
Paul is holding up more than five dozen State Department
nominations
, saying he’ll end the block when the
Biden administration
hands over pandemic origins documents. That led to more White House ridicule.
“The Department of State has cooperated extensively, extensively with the senator,” Jean-Pierre said in
response to a question
from the Washington Examiner. “They have provided documents and other information, but he continues to block all State nominees for no reason.”
Democrats are calling the moves unprecedented and the latest sign of extremism from “MAGA” Republicans, aiming to win the public messaging battle over the conflict.
But conservatives counter that progressives have the narrative backward — the Pentagon made the policy change with no vote or funding approved by Congress, while Paul says the documents he’s after are not classified and that he should have had them long ago. Republicans also point to a
previous
promotions hold by Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) as evidence the tactic is now new.
President
Joe Biden
is working to portray Tuberville as being on an island and calling on fellow Republicans to stop him, while Tuberville’s office points to support he’s received from at least 14 other senators, most of them in deep red states.
“The Biden Department of Defense’s policy is not just unlawful, it’s immoral,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), a former military officer, said. “Congress has been clear; the Hyde Amendment protects taxpayers from being forced to fund abortions. I will continue to ensure the unborn and your tax dollars are protected.”
While GOP figures like Ernst and Tuberville make clear they are anti-abortion, they also focus their complaints on procedural grounds such as the Hyde Amendment and the constitutional role of Congress to approve funding.
From a political standpoint, however, the issue may play into the hands of Democrats. The party, led by Vice President
Kamala Harris
, focused much of its midterm messaging
on abortion access
and the party outperformed expectations.
“In 2022, I think if Roe v. Wade hadn’t been overturned, that would have been a very different outcome,” Democratic strategist Stefan Hankin said. “Abortion is a winning issue.”
Notably, many Republicans in Congress, including Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell
(R-KY), have been hesitant to support or have even actively distanced themselves from the spat.
Given that, Stefan thinks Democrats should actually focus more on the Pentagon promotions showdown.
“I’m a little shocked that Democrats aren’t making a bigger deal over what Tuberville is doing,” Hankin said.
The White House may have ratcheted up the pressure Friday afternoon by announcing the
nomination of Admiral Lisa Franchetti
to become the first woman to lead the Navy. That nomination too will be held up until the situation is resolved.
Republican strategist Doug Heye says both parties would do well to focus their attention away from the Tuberville and Paul conflicts.
“These won’t really be issues outside of the base, or in the Tuberville case, bases,” Heye said. “On the national level, Republicans should focus on the issues that have Biden’s approval ratings in the cellar, and those issues first and foremost on voters’ minds — which happen to be where Biden’s approval
is so low
.”
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For now, both Tuberville and Paul say they’re prepared for pressure campaigns and ready to stand firm regardless of the consequences.
“A million Americans died from COVID,” Paul
said
in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner. “The FBI, DOE, and many leading scientists have concluded that the virus likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan. USAID funded research in Wuhan and refuses to release documents from its $200 million PREDICT program. When they release the info, I’ll release the nominations.”
