Tommy Tuberville’s blockade on military promotions, explained

The U.S. military is one of few American institutions that still reliably receives bipartisan support in Congress. The hold In an effort to force the Pentagon to abandon its new policy, Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville has for six months repeatedly objected to Biden’s nominations to military leadership, temporarily blocking them from taking their new positions. In an extraordinary rebuke, the secretaries for the Navy, Air Force and Army admonished the senator in an op-ed, calling his hold “dangerous” and said it is “putting our national security at risk.” The jobs are being carried out “by acting officials without the full range of legal authorities necessary to make the decisions that will sustain the United States’ military edge,” Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Army Secretary Christine Wormuth wrote Monday in a Washington Post op-ed. “The Biden Admin injected politics into the military and imposed an unlawful abortion policy on the American taxpayers.” On Tuesday, Air Force Brig. —Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s health episodes show “no evidence” of being a stroke or seizure disorder, the Capitol physician said in a letter on Tuesday, offering little further explanation for the apparent freeze-ups that have drawn concerns about the 81-year-old’s situation, the Associated Press reported.