TheNews2, DepositPhotos
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley came out against Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) holding up hundreds of military promotions in protest of the administration’s policy allowing expense paid travel up to three weeks leave for an elective abortion.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley acknowledged on Sunday that the Biden administration started the political battle over abortions for service members, but despite that she still does not support Sen. Tuberville holding up the hundreds of military promotions in protest of the administration’s plicy allowing expense-paid travel and up to three weeks leave for an elective abortion. This puts her on the same side as Chris Christie and in opposition to a majority of the Republican field who have spoken out on the matter, including Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Mike Pence.
The “hold” on general and flag officer promotions blocks the Democrat-controlled Senate from approving the nominations quickly and in batches through a “unanimous consent” agreement. Tuberville stressed that a process to hold votes to approve individual nominations would be “very easy to do” and is open to that.
“I know you have criticized his decision,” CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” said to Haley regarding Tuberville’s decision. “The military says this is hurting readiness. I know, as a military spouse, you know military spouses are really upset about this.”
“Why is the Republican Party tolerating this?” Haley asked, before adding that “we don’t need to be using military families as political pawns.”
Haley said that she disagreed with the reimbursement policy for travel for abortion and said that she would put an end to it if she becomes president, but doesn’t like the way that it is being done.
“The military members and families, they sacrifice enough. They don’t need to be a pawn in Congress,” she continued. “But look at the political games that continue to play. Chuck Schumer could still get this done if he went through and listed each member and had Congress vote on each member.”
Haley noted that it was the Biden administration that started the entire situation, but that she is “not saying Senator Tuberville is right in doing this, because I don’t want to use them as pawns.”
“But if you love our military, if you are so adamant about it, then go and make Congress, Republicans and Democrats, have to go through person by person,” she added. “Do you honestly think they won’t say, OK, this is ridiculous, let’s put an end to it?”
“They will. But show your true grit by going out there and saying, fine, if you all are going to play the military for the pawns like this, let’s go member by member,” she continued. “Let’s make them pay the price. Let’s make them do their job. Let’s make them suffer so that they know what they’re doing to these military families. This isn’t about making it convenient for Congress. This is about making sure you’re doing right by members of the military. This is making sure you hold the Department of Defense accountable.”
