Tuberville “has nothing to show for his 10 months of delay,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a scathing speech after the nominees were confirmed. Tuberville has retained his holds on roughly 11 other promotions.
The Senate confirmed more than 400 military nominees Tuesday afternoon after Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., announced he would drop the bulk of his holds, ending a monthslong campaign.
Tuberville told reporters earlier Tuesday that he had lifted his hold on all military promotions at three-star rank and below, amounting to over 425 promotions.
“I’m releasing everybody. I still got a hold on, I think, 11 four-star generals. Everybody else is completely released from me.” Tuberville told reporters. “But other than that, it’s over.”
Highest ranks, yes. It’s actually reasonable for the Senate to pay attention to who is getting promoted to the highest ranks. Every rank, no. It is my understanding that we are talking about every officer rank in the military needing confirmation by the Senate, which is meaningless because the Senate simply cannot pay attention to every one of these. That is precisely why Tuberville is able to hold this up, because it is logistically impossible for the Senate to check on every one of these people.