DeSantis defends Tuberville blockade on military nominations

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s ongoing hold on military nominations Thursday, saying the Pentagon should “stand down” and stop promoting “abortion tourism.”

“What the military’s policy is, is not following US law,” the 2024 Republican contender told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “They are using tax dollars. They’re funding abortion tourism, which is not an appropriate thing for the military to be doing.

“So I think our Republicans in the Congress should just take a stand on this. The DOD should stand down,” DeSantis added.

Tuberville (R-Ala.) has been placing holds on military promotions since February, preventing approximately 270 high-ranking personnel from getting an expedited Senate vote.

The senator’s blockade is a protest of a policy implemented after the overturn of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court last year in which the Defense Department foots the bill for service members who travel out of state to receive any kind of reproductive care, such as abortion or in-vitro fertilization.

“We have all these other problems in our military,” said DeSantis, a Navy veteran who rolled out his “Mission First” plan to root out “wokeness” from the military earlier this week.

“You know, we need more ammunition. We need more recruiting. We need all these other things, and yet they’re focusing on abortion tourism. So that’ll be an easy thing for me, day one as commander-in-chief. That policy will go out the window, and we’re going to focus on mission accomplishment again.”

Republicans have splintered over Tuberville’s hold, with the Biden administration and other Democrats accusing the former college football coach of undermining national security.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has even publicly broken with the Alabama senator on the issue.

“I don’t support putting a hold on military nominations,” McConnell told reporters in May. “I don’t support that.”

DeSantis is a staunch abortion opponent and set off controversy earlier this year by signing legislation banning most procedures after just six weeks of pregnancy.

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) signaled willingness to hold a vote on whether to scrap the policy as an olive branch to Tuberville.

“The bottom line is that if he wants to have an affirmative vote, we would not object to it,” Schumer told reporters. “Tuberville said he wanted a vote, we’ll see what happens.”

That offer would ostensibly take the form of a standalone bill or as an amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act in exchange for Tuberville removing his blanket hold.

Tuberville expressed openness to the off-ramp, but hinted he won’t be amenable to removing his hold if it becomes clear the vote is meant to fail.