On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville spoke with reporters about a report on Monday that President Joe Biden may take Space Command from the state of Alabama.
“A very disturbing new report came out this week that showed that President Biden is preparing to overrule three separate government reviews and block Space Command from moving to Huntsville, Alabama,” Tuberville said. “According to the report, he wants to do this because Alabama is a pro-life state. The Air Force selected Redstone Arsenal over sixty options. The Air Force chose Redstone Arsenal because of Huntsville’s world-class facilities, educated workforce, and quality of life. Lawmakers from Colorado demanded studies to review the Air Force’s decision. Those three studies all ranked Alabama number one. Colorado did not make the top three. Now President Biden may overrule the Department of Defense and two independent studies all because Alabama believes in the right to life. If the President goes through with this hypocritical and dangerous decision, it will be the worst that Washington can see. This would set a terrible precedent. Is he going to close all the military bases in red states? Lots of states are pro-life. We can’t have military bases now? This is just another example of Joe Biden politicizing the military.”
Reporters asked Tuberville if his blocking of military promotions over the Department of Defense’s intrusion into the abortion debate is a problem.
“No. No, that had not even been in the conversation,” Tuberville said. “There has been articles written stating that it is not a problem. Obviously, the Biden administration is looking for any possible way to say that we need to move it to a blue state. This is all about politics. This is about the Colorado delegation putting pressure on [Chuck] Schumer and [Nancy] Pelosi and Biden. This is not about doing what is best for the country. This is about doing what is best for the Democrats.”
Tuberville dismissed accusations that this was due to his position on military abortions and his linking that to blocking military promotions.
“If I thought this had anything to do with it obviously, we wouldn’t be going down this road, but I believe in – I believe in life,” Tuberville said in the conversation with reporters. “This is not about abortion. This is about taxpayers having to fund abortion and the Department of Defense acting outside of authority. They know they are wrong, ok. They did this illegally. They are ignoring the law. They came to me, and I said follow the law or change the law. If we are not going to do that, then we are going to keep the holds on.”
Tuberville said that Biden’s unwarranted attack on Alabama is a political decision.
“It has nothing to do with Space Command,” Tuberville reiterated. “You can hear behind the scenes that they even talked about doing this in the summer or fall. They are not looking at facts. They are looking at politics, and so hopefully, they will come to their senses because Colorado was barely in the top five. The people who ought to really be mad – other than the people of Alabama and Huntsville – if this goes down like it looks like it might happen, and that is the people in Nebraska were second. San Antonio, who was third. It is just amazing that we are putting politics ahead of national security.”
Tuberville urged Alabamians not to give up hope.
“Every day since I have been here, we have done something in terms of trying to convince this administration – that is obviously not bipartisan. They are very partisan – to make this happen, but it is not over. We are going to continue to fight for it. I know Mike Rogers, who is head of the Armed Services Committee, is working on it very hard. So, let’s keep politics out of it and do the right thing for the American people, the military, and Space Command.”
Following Richard Shelby’s retirement in January, Tuberville is the senior Senator from Alabama.
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