Senator Tommy Tuberville calls Air Force Secretary’s criticism “propaganda”
On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) responded to harsh criticism of his holds on military readiness by the Army, Navy, and Air Force Secretaries. Tuberville commented during a telephone news conference on Wednesday with the Alabama news media. “Democrats are continuing to try to shift blame for the Pentagon’s radical taxpayer-funded abortion policy by demanding that I lift my hold on military promotions, but I still stand firm in my belief that hardworking taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for travel expenses and additional time off for servicemembers and dependents choosing to get an elective abortion,” Tuberville said in a statement. “Nobody in this country voted for this policy. It is extreme. It came from the White House. It was neither authorized nor appropriated by Congress.” Tuberville said that his holds are not hurting military readiness. “I am not blocking votes,” Tuberville continued. “I am not stopping anybody from being confirmed. I am just stopping them from doing them in batches, hundreds at a time. It is one of the only ways I have of exercising oversight over the radical policies from the executive branch.” While Tuberville is being widely criticized in Washington, Sen. Tuberville insists that the people of Alabama support him. “Over the last six months, I have heard from thousands of Alabamians, including veterans, who are standing with me,” Tuberville stated. “They want our military to stay focused on its mission and stay out of politics. They know the real threat to our military is the woke policies of this administration. Under Joe Biden, we have seen the first shortfall in the history of the volunteer military. We’re down 15,000 soldiers. This year, it will be even worse. We are also down 8,000 service members because of Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate. My holds are not, and I repeat, are not affecting readiness, but Joe Biden’s woke policies and his woke appointees are hurting readiness every day.” Sen. Tuberville dismissed the recent op-ed in the Washington Post by the service secretaries as “propaganda.” “This is all propaganda, first of all,” Tuberville said when asked by a reporter. “Let me say this. I am not holding up any nominations from being approved. They can bring them one at a time to the floor. They have chosen not to do that. I have also talked to some of the nominees that come through my office through their posture hearings. They have already changed jobs. They are already doing the job. It’s just they have got interim on their name.” “There is no threat to readiness,” Tuberville continued. “The people that we really need to be worried about are the colonels, majors, and sergeants – privates. They are the ones getting ready to fight wars.” Tuberville pushed back at the Pentagon. “The people up here in the Pentagon – I don’t know what they do every day, but they are more of giving advice,” Tuberville said. “It is just a surprise to me. These are all number one Joe Biden’s civilian appointees: the Secretary of the Air Force, the Navy, the Army, and it disappoints me. Some of the language that they use because I am a United States Senator. I would never say that about them in the newspaper. This should not be played out in the newspaper. If you need to visit with me, call me or come see me. They know where I am. They have not talked with me.” Tuberville accused Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the White House of carrying out a propaganda campaign against him. “It is all propaganda that is being carried on by the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States,” Tuberville said. “Y’all got to start putting pressure on this Senator. They don’t know what pressure is, OK. I don’t feel any pressure at all, but I do have thousands and thousands of people – veterans and present military people that are supporting me. So again, I am not doing this for a blue ribbon.” “I am doing this because they have changed a policy and a law that is against the law to do it the way they have done it – through a memo,” Tuberville explained. “Let’s vote on it. If we vote on it, I will accept the consequences either way. I will take the holds off, but we are not going to do hundreds at a time. That is not going to happen.” One reporter asked Tuberville to respond to a quote from Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro accusing Tuberville’s policy on the holds as “aiding and abetting communists and other autocratic regimes around the world.” “The Secretaries give advice to the President of the United States, and that is an absurd statement about a United States Senator – somebody that has been in this country a long time,” Tuberville responded. “I believe in this country. I believe in our military. There is nobody up here any stronger for national security than I am, but it does disappoint me again, as I said earlier, that none of these secretaries have called me other than Secretary of Defense Austin. I have not talked to any of them. They haven’t shown any concern at all. They have just been pressured by the White House and the Pentagon.” Tuberville called on the Secretaries to do something about the crisis on the southern border. “They are talking about terrorism. They need to go to the White House and tell Joe Biden, by the way, that our borders are wide open,” Tuberville stated. “We have got six million new people in this country, and we do have a bunch of terrorists that have come across the border, and we don’t even know where they are at. You want to talk about terrorism – do your job. Do your job at the border. Give advice to the President to close that border and protect the people of this country. Right now, it is wide open. We are putting the people of this country – American citizens – in
Tommy Tuberville, Katie Britt, and colleagues urge President Joe Biden to strengthen U.S. submarine industrial base
U.S. Senators Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt joined Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and 21 Senate and House colleagues in a letter to President Joe Biden calling on the president to take immediate action to strengthen the U.S. submarine industrial base. This is particularly important with the U.S. working to fulfill the terms of the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) partnership. In the letter, the legislators emphasized their support for the AUKUS deal and argued that the U.S. submarine industrial base would require major new investments and a comprehensive plan of action to meet the needs of both the United States and Australia. “We urge you to send Congress immediately an AUKUS-specific request for appropriations and authorities alongside a multi-year plan to increase U.S. submarine production to a minimum of 2.5 Virginia-class attack submarines per year,” the Senator wrote in the letter. “It is time to make generational investments in U.S. submarine production capacity, including supplier and workforce development initiatives.” “AUKUS has broad support because of its potential to improve the national security of all three countries,” the Senators wrote. “Implementing this deal will require a historic degree of cooperation and trust among the three countries, and here at home, between the executive and legislative branches of our government.” “The U.S. Navy’s military requirement is 66 nuclear attack submarines,” the Senators wrote. “Today, there are only 49 in the fleet. Further, as older nuclear submarines retire faster than they are replaced, the Navy projects the inventory will decline to 46 by 2030. Under the current AUKUS plan to transfer U.S. Virginia-class submarines to a partner nation before meeting the Navy’s own requirements, the number of available nuclear submarines in the U.S. submarine fleet would be lowered further. This is a risk we should not take.” The full letter to President Biden is here. “The United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom formed a pact in 2021 to boost the three nations’ collective deterrence in the Indo-Pacific,” Sen. Wicker wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal. “That Aukus agreement is vital, but there is more work to do: The U.S. should double its submarine production.” “Under the first pillar of the Aukus agreement, the U.S. would sell our attack submarines to Australia,” Wicker continued. “In exchange, Australia would expand basing for U.S. submarines. In the second pillar, all three nations would share advanced technology.” “Attack submarines are among our most effective weapons and the crown jewels of U.S. military power,” Wicker continued. “Undersea warfare is one of the few areas in which we retain a competitive advantage over the Chinese military.” “Worse still, demands on our submarine maintenance capabilities have also stretched our military’s readiness,” Wicker wrote. “Nearly 40% of U.S. attack submarines cannot be deployed because of maintenance delays. For example, the USS Connecticut had an accident in the South China Sea in 2021 and likely won’t be operational until 2026.” U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro recently told reporters that the U.S. cannot compete with China’s ability to build warships. They have more shipyards and are building ships at a faster pace than American shipyards are capable of building ships. Del Toro said that the Chinese Navy is the largest in the world, with 340 ships, and could be fielding up to 400 ships in the coming years. The U.S. meanwhile has fewer than 300 ships and is struggling to maintain the readiness of that fleet. According to the U.S. Navy’s Navigation Plan 2022, released last summer, the Pentagon’s goal is to have 350 manned ships by 2045, but it is unclear if that target will or can be met. “They have 13 shipyards; in some cases, their shipyard has more capacity – one shipyard has more capacity than all of our shipyards combined. That presents a real threat,” Del Toro said. Tommy Tuberville was elected to the Senate in 2020, while Katie Britt was elected to the Senate in 2022. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
