'Irresponsible' senators slammed for letting 'dumbest member' hold them hostage

As United States Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) continues to block military promotions for senior officers, lawmakers — both Democrat and Republican are growing frustrated.

During Thursday's episode of MSNBC's Deadline: White House, host Nicolle Wallace and The Bulwark editor Charlie Sykes discussed the Senate's Wednesday meeting, in which several GOP senators confronted Tuberville in an unsuccessful effort to push towards confirming over 60 military nominees.

The pair also questioned why Senate Democrats have allowed Tuberville's rampage to persist for so long, considering the party controls the chamber.

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Earlier this week, several Senate Armed Services members suggested that the Alabama lawmaker's scheme likely led to Marine Corp. General Eric Smith's recent heart attack.

"Why do you think Democrats aren't more aggressively taking this case to the country?" Wallace asked Sykes. "Because, again, I know I don't know what makes the Republican party tick anymore, but I'm pretty sure in the heartland of this country, they still support having a military that is funded, ready, prepared, and safe, and the Republicans are turning them into sitting ducks."

Sykes replied, "Yeah, I can't imagine what the constituency is. And I think that you saw that last night — I was struck by both the substance of the comments — Senator [Daniel] Sullivan (R-Alaska) talking about the impact on readiness undermining the U.S. military — but I was also struck by the tone of the comments. That they waited nine months to confront this unserious, reckless and dangerous stunt by Tommy Tuberville. They sounded exasperated and disgusted by what he is doing. And I think it sort of burst out because, number one, it makes no political sense whatsoever. Number two, it doesn't make any tactical sense whatsoever, because you don't undermine the readiness of the U.S. military at a time of global peril over a policy issue — abortion or anything else."

He continued, "And they tried to offer him so many alternatives and off-ramps, and [Senator] Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) called him out, at one point saying that he wanted to have up or down votes on each individual promotion, and then breaking his word. So I think what you saw there was Republican senators are suddenly waking up and realizing that they have allowed themselves and the U.S. military, and the men and women who serve in the U.S. military, to be held hostage by frankly the dumbest member of the U.S. senate, who is doing something that makes no sense. And it is, I think, you know, so telling that it did take this medical emergency with the Marine Corps. commandant, and a war in the Middle East, to kind of shake them out of that lethargy to realize, 'Look, guys, you have this power. This is your colleague. This is the oath you've taken to uphold, and look what you have allowed to happen to the U.S. military.' So I thought it was extraordinary — I mean, yes, it's better late than never, but that they sat there for nine months and watched Tommy Tuberville pull off these stunts is truly remarkable."

READ MORE: Tuberville snaps at claims his military blockade led to Marine commander’s heart attack: 'Come on!'

Charlie, it's not over though. They haven't fixed it. He hasn't lifted his hold, and if they were to try to confirm all these members the way he would like them to, it would take 24 hours a day, 30 days straight — 30 days and 17 hours to process 273 military nominations, if the senate worked 24 hours a day and we all know they won't and they can't. The other important point is all that has happened in this story is that Republicans are now also mad. They haven't changed Tommy Tuberville's obstruction of military promotions at a time of a hot war in the Middle East or raging in Ukraine and Russia and evidence that they are literally, if not killing, seriously endangering the help of people who are in these jobs."

Sykes emphasized, No, this is just insane. It is an insane moment. I think you and I have talked about this before — why [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has allowed this to drag on for so long — the Democrats do control the Senate. Why Mitch McConnell has allowed his party to behave in this particular way. So, I am not a parliamentary expert, but if there was ever a moment for the Senate to change its rules to address this kind of an absurd outcome, this would be it, right? Because you cannot allow the United States military, much less the United States senate, to be held hostage by one reckless, irresponsible, deeply unserious man like the senator from Alabama."

Watch the video at this link.

READ MORE: 'Coward' Tommy Tuberville 'who’s never served' slammed by ex-Marine general: report