Five Republican senators who are defense hawks publicly attacked Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-AL on Thursday for refusing to promote him in the military because the Pentagon refused to negotiate its pro-abortion policies.

The Republican Senators include Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Todd Young (R-IN), Mitt Romney (R-MA), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and Joni Ernst (R-IA).

Tuberville seized the Senate’s power to confirm several hundred military promotions on a blanket-basis after the Biden Pentagon announced a policy which would cover travel expenses, time off and accommodations for servicemen traveling for abortions.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, the Biden Pentagon released the policy. Tuberville thinks that the policy is in violation of the Hyde Amendment which prohibits federal funding for abortions. The hold he has on the Senate does not stop it from approving any individual military promotion, but only from blanket approval of hundreds.

Each senator criticised Tuberville one by one and demanded a vote on the promotion of a military officer. Tuberville opposed each motion.

Romney said that Tuberville’s actions were an “abuse” of the powers we as senators have.

Mollie Hemingway, of The Federalist, previewed the Senator’s move with a blog post.

McConnell’s aides and allies including Lindsay Graham and Joni Ernst as well as Todd Young and Dan Sullivan told their colleagues that they were planning to attack Tommy Tuberville for his hold on military promotion, modeled on Elizabeth Warren’s recent attack. Tuberville blocked the Pentagon’s illegal abortion funding policy from allowing unreviewable unanimous consent to be given for military promotions. Tuberville’s hold on the easy approval that would have otherwise occurred without a vote revealed that over 40% of nominees were devoted to DEI or other left-wing ideologies at odds with a fighting force. The plan for Biden administration and its woke Pentagon to interfere is scheduled to begin at 6pm tonight. Just to let you know. We’ll have to wait and see what exactly happens.

Rogan O’Handley, a conservative lawyer and strategist, also raised the alarm by posting an emoji of a siren:

Lindsay Graham Joni Ernest Todd Young Dan Sullivan The 4 Senators could be planning to backstab Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is holding up Biden’s DEI military appointments. Just in case you don’t hate Lindsey Graham already enough

Tuberville’s holds frustrated the Biden Administration and Democrats but this was the very first time Republicans voiced their public opposition.

Tuberville had earlier defended his hold, explaining his case.

The Pentagon sent out a memo nine months ago stating that it would begin using taxpayer funds to facilitate abortions. Pentagon now pays for travel, extra time off and other expenses for servicemen and their families to obtain abortions. Congress has never approved this. We never appropriated money to do this. It is against the law for them to do so. There is actually a law which says that they cannot do this.

Once more. It is against the law to do that. This room was created. It is 10 USC Section 10.93. The Pentagon is only allowed to spend taxpayer money on abortion in cases involving rape, sexual assault, or threats to the mother’s health. This is an illegal and immoral policy. It’s about life. It’s about life. It’s all about our Constitution. It’s not about the Pentagon or the Constitution.

It is also about our military’s integrity. Only the constitution is more honorable than our military. We all swore uphold the Constitution. I feel strongly about upholding it every day here in this room. I can’t just sit by and watch as the bottle administration injects our military and politics, then injects our military and politics again from the White House. And spends taxpayer money on abortion.

A senator in the minorities only has one power: to place a hold on an appointment. It’s not my first time to put a hold on a nomination. Many, many, many people have been held up on nominations for military positions.

They usually don’t last long, because the administration works with the senator to resolve the issue. This time, however, it hasn’t happened. Zero negotiation. The Democrats’ most important issue is abortion. They won’t even try to negotiate. Democrats will not negotiate on abortion, which is their top priority.

It has been nine months since this started. This continues every day as Democrats continue to think that abortion is more valuable than nominations and our military. I support many nominees, and I agree these are important jobs. But we could have voted on these nominees for the whole nine months. This year the Senate had over 90 days of vacation, including weekends. Each nomination can take as little time as two hours.

Tomorrow, we will vote on three of our most important nominees. We forced the Senate leader to bring them to the floor. It is important to vote on the top nominees. The Senate should give its advice and consent to these important positions. Respectfully, I must disregard my disagreement with my colleagues regarding the effect of my holding on readiness. My hold does not affect readiness.

Nobody has an answer to why the Biden administration has been saying this since months. Nobody. There are no jobs. There are no unfilled jobs. General Mark Milley recently said that our readiness was the best in years. Many times, I’ve been assured by generals and military personnel that they are ready to go.

So, I will keep my hold in place. I am willing to let senators vote on each nominee individually. I would be happy to do so. But I’ll keep my hole until either the Democrats or the Pentagon follow the law.

It’s about our Constitution. Here we are talking about the rule of Law. This is what we are about. Our military’s integrity is at stake. Politics and politics must be kept out of our military. I didn’t put it in the Military. Joe Biden. Inspector Austin brought politics into the military. It’s all about the right to live. They are the things that I value most in life.