Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has been singlehandedly blocking the ability of the military to promote new commanding officers, and now he's not even taking calls to resolve the matter from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports that Austin tried reaching out to Tuberville via the telephone on Thursday but was told that the Alabama senator "did not have time for a call today or this weekend."
Collins notes that this comes despite the fact that Tuberville has been complaining about a lack of communication from the Biden administration about lifting his blockade, which he began to protest against the Pentagon giving female servicemembers access to abortion services.
The failed phone call comes amid a week of controversy for Tuberville, who refused to condemn white nationalists on the grounds that he did not believe they were racist, only to backtrack and say he apparently didn't have an understanding of what white nationalism entailed.
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Tuberville also rejected suggestions that he was racist and cited his career as a college football coach as evidence.
"I was a football coach for 40 years, and I dealt, had opportunity to be around more minorities than anyone up here," he told reporters.