Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin fires back at GOP's Tommy Tuberville over Senate blockade

Defense secretary Lloyd Austin fired back at a Republican senator's blockade of 160 military promotions to protest an abortion directive.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is single-handedly holding up the promotions to force the Pentagon to drop a policy directive giving service members greater access to abortion services, and the secretary of defense called out the political maneuver as a danger to national security and military families, reported Politico.

“There are a number of things happening globally that indicate that we could be in a contest on any one given day,” Austin said. “Not approving the recommendations for promotions actually creates a ripple effect through the force that makes us far less ready than we need to be."

"The effects are cumulative and it will affect families," he added. "It will affect kids going to schools because they won’t be able to change their duty station. It’s a powerful effect and will impact on our readiness.”

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Tuberville has not been joined by other GOP senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee, although Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and other Republicans agree with him in principle, but Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) warned that his tactic risked “permanently politicizing the confirmation of military personnel.”

“If every single one of us objected to the promotion of military personnel whenever we feel passionately or strongly about an issue," Schumer said on the Senate floor, "our military would simply grind to a halt."