Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. on Tuesday warned that efforts by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) to block military promotions would have far-reaching effects.
Brown made his assertion during his Senate confirmation hearing to become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. President Biden nominated Brown in May to replace Army Gen. Mark Milley in the top position. Milley’s term ends in October.
Tuberville, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has blocked hundreds of military nominations from moving forward because he believes the Pentagon is improperly using government funding to cover travel costs for abortions for service members and their dependents.
Because of Tuberville’s actions, the U.S. Marine Corp is currently without a commandant for the first time since 1910. Gen. David Berger stepped down from that position on Monday with no permanent successor to whom he could hand off the position.
“Hundreds of well-qualified military leaders are now being held up by Senator Tuberville,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said on Monday.
As of Friday, 265 promotions have been impeded, according to Singh.
An aide to Tuberville said he would also block Brown’s promotion to Joint Chiefs Chair.
On Monday Tuberville found himself embroiled in another controversy, when he refused to agree that white nationalists are racist during an interview on CNN.
White nationalist groups espouse white supremacist or white separatist ideologies.
“My opinion of a white nationalist, if someone wants to call them white nationalist, to me is an American,” Tuberville said, though he added that he’s “totally against any type of racist.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blasted Tuberville as “wrong, wrong, wrong” on the definition of white nationalists, asserting that it’s “not a matter of opinion.”
