US defense secretary says Tuberville holds are ‘national security issue’
By Sarah Dean, CNN
Updated 8:26 AM EDT, Thu July 13, 2023
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US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s holds on hundreds of senior military nominations are a “national security issue.”
“This is a national security issue. It’s a readiness issue. And, we shouldn’t kid ourselves. I think any member of the Senate Armed Services Committee knows that,” Austin said in an interview Thursday with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer following the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
When asked by Blitzer if the defense secretary would have a conversation with the Alabama senator to get this resolved, Austin said he would “continue to engage” with Tuberville, and added the two had a conversation in March.
Tuberville insisted earlier this week in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that he is not blocking confirmations and that the Senate had plenty of time to take up the nominees. Tuberville has not backed down from maintaining his block on nominations as he protests the Defense Department’s reproductive health policies, claiming there is no impact on national security and no risk to US military readiness.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/13/politics/lloyd-austin-tommy-tuberville/index.html
