Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is remaining firm in his blockade of military appointments and promotions from being considered in the Senate, in protest of a Pentagon policy that allows servicemembers to travel to other states to obtain abortions.
But this obstruction could actually begin to hurt his own state, warned founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Paul Reickhoff on MSNBC Friday during a discussion of the House GOP's bill to strip out the travel funding and bar LGBTQ flags on military bases.
In particular, he noted, it could prevent the Space Command headquarters from being relocated to Alabama, a Trump-era decision which the Biden administration is already considering reversing.
"I always wonder about the asymmetry of these things," said anchor Nicolle Wallace. "The military is not a political institution, it is not wired for rapid response. So when the Republicans — when Tucker Carlson used to smear them with the military is woke. The military is not set up to rapidly respond. It takes voices like yours to end up on programs like this to put the facts out there, but by that point, the right-wing lies have made their way around the right-wing ecosystem half a dozen times. What is a better way to keep the facts in front of the American people?"
"I think ordinary people need to get more involved in politics," said Reickhoff. "I know folks say it on cable news all the time, but it's really true. This is hitting people pretty profoundly in places like Alabama, where radical senator Tommy Tuberville — I call him 'Senator Redneck' — is going to jeopardize his state's ability to get Space Command. Nobody's going to want to send Space Command from Colorado to Alabama, when women aren't going to want to work there, nobody in the LGBTQ community would want to work, there if it's Tommy Tuberville's state."
"They continue to push this Confederate agenda down the throats of 2023 America," said Reickhoff. "I think ultimately it's normal people, it's people outside of politics and the folks in uniform. I thought that General C.Q. Brown, the nominee for the Chairman of Joint Chiefs, has been very strong, Admiral Lloyd Austin has been very strong. And important to note, too, they're Black and Tommy Tuberville is white and he continues to pick fights with high profile African-American people in our government. That's not an accident."