{"id":183194,"date":"2023-11-02T03:02:56","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T03:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=183194"},"modified":"2023-11-02T03:02:56","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T03:02:56","slug":"xi-jinping-is-loving-this-republican-showdown-over-military-grips-senate-floor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/xi-jinping-is-loving-this-republican-showdown-over-military-grips-senate-floor\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Xi Jinping is loving this\u2019: Republican showdown over military grips Senate floor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Washington:<\/strong> Republican senators angrily challenged Senator Tommy Tuberville on his blockade of almost 400 military officers on Wednesday evening (Washington time), taking over the Senate floor for hours to call for individual confirmation votes after a monthslong stalemate.<\/p>\n Tuberville, a Republican, stood and objected over and over again, extending his holds on the military confirmations and promotions with no immediate resolution in sight.<\/p>\n Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville has blocked 400 confirmations.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n But the extraordinary confrontation between Republicans, boiling over nine months after Tuberville first announced the holds over a Pentagon abortion policy, escalated the standoff as Defence Department officials have repeatedly said the backlog of officials needing confirmation could endanger national security.<\/p>\n Tuberville\u2019s Republican rivals pointed out the national security implications of the delay in confirmations, with one senator claiming Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin would welcome such scenes of dysfunction in the US Senate.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy are we putting holds on war heroes?\u201d asked Republican Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska, himself a colonel in the US Marine Corps Reserve. \u201cI don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cXi Jinping is watching this right now going: \u2019I can\u2019t believe they\u2019re not letting these guys command. I\u2019m scared to death of subs. He\u2019s loving this. So is Putin. They\u2019re loving it. How dumb can we be?\u201d<\/p>\n Tuberville\u2019s block comes as Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, Israel\u2019s war with Hamas, and tensions in the South China Sea create a full set of challenges for the US and allies.<\/p>\n Sullivan said if the standoff continues and officers leave the military, Tuberville\u2019s blockade will be remembered as a \u201cnational security suicide mission\u201d.<\/p>\n South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham told Tuberville, who mostly sat quiet and alone as they talked, that he should sue the military if he thinks the policy is illegal. \u201cThat\u2019s how you handle these things,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n After Tuberville objected to a vote on a two-star general nominated to be a deputy commander in the Air Force, Graham turned and faced him. \u201cYou just denied this lady a promotion,\u201d Graham said angrily to Tuberville. \u201cYou did that.\u201d<\/p>\n Tuberville said on Wednesday there is \u201czero chance\u201d he will drop the holds.<\/p>\n Despite several high-level vacancies and the growing backlog of nominations, he has said he will continue to hold the nominees up unless the Pentagon ends \u2014 or puts to a vote in Congress \u2014 its new policy of paying for travel when a service member has to go out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care.<\/p>\n President Joe Biden\u2019s administration instituted the policy after the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to an abortion, and some states have limited or banned the procedure.<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot simply sit idly by while the Biden administration injects politics in our military from the White House and spends taxpayers\u2019 dollars on abortion,\u201d Tuberville said.<\/p>\n Showing obvious frustration and frequent flashes of anger, the Republican senators \u2014 Sullivan, Graham, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, Indiana Senator Todd Young and others \u2014 read lengthy biographies and praised individual nominees as they called for vote after vote.<\/p>\n They said they agree with Tuberville on the policy, but questioned \u2014 as Democrats have for months \u2014 why he would hold up the highest ranks of the US military.<\/p>\n Sullivan said Tuberville is \u201c100 percent wrong\u201d that his holds are not affecting military readiness.<\/p>\n Ernst said the nominees are being used as \u201cpolitical pawns.\u201d Utah Senator Mitt Romney advised Tuberville to try to negotiate an end to the standoff. All of them warned that good people would leave military service if the blockade continues.<\/p>\n As the night wore on, Sullivan and Ernst \u2014 herself a former commander in the US Army Reserve and Iowa Army National Guard \u2014 continued to bring up new nominations and appeared to become increasingly frustrated.<\/p>\n They noted that they were bringing up the nominations \u201cone by one\u201d as Tuberville had once called for, and asked why he wouldn\u2019t allow them to go forward. Tuberville did not answer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all know it is wrong,\u201d Sullivan said about three hours in, openly wondering if Tuberville might eventually change his mind. \u201cIt is wrong!\u201d<\/p>\n The impasse in the Senate comes a month after the House of Representatives was plunged into crisis, when Kevin McCarthy was dumped as Speaker by Republican extremists, creating a bruising intraparty war in which the business of the chamber was halted.<\/p>\n <\/strong>After 22 days of paralysis, four nominees and days of backroom wrangling, Mike Johnson was voted in by Republicans as House Speaker.<\/p>\n AP<\/strong><\/p>\n Get a note directly from our foreign <\/i><\/b>correspondents <\/i><\/b>on what\u2019s making headlines around the world. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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