Congress

Why GOP Is Scared to Stop Tommy Tuberville’s Tantrum Over Military Nominees

THE NEW ABNORMAL

Veteran Jason Kander tells The New Abnormal there are two main reasons why Republicans are afraid to take on Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s military blockade.

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A photo illustration of Sen. Tommy Tuberville and military insignia rank.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters

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Veteran Jason Kander says Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has backed himself into a corner with his blockade over military nominees and is simply too embarrassed to change course.

Tuberville’s nine-month hold-out is now affecting hundreds of military officials looking for Senate confirmation for their promotions.

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“I think he’s embarrassed. At this point he’s dug in so far… he can’t see the top,” Kander tells The New Abnormal’s Andy Levy. “A lot of people have tried to give him a graceful exit from this hole that he’s dug and he’s passed so many of those exits that now he has no choice to just force the Senate to go around him.”

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Kander, the former secretary of state from Missouri, says Tuberville’s position that he will continue to hold out until the Pentagon changes its policy allowing abortion is politically tricky for Republicans.

“They’re afraid of two things. One, they’re afraid of upsetting a member of their caucus, who then turns on them. And two, because we’ve become so polarized, they’re all scared to death of a primary and the underlying thing that Tuberville is talking about, or trying to make this about, is abortion. I think they’re really scared of looking like they voted the wrong way on abortion in a Republican primary.”

Plus! Andy Norman founder of CIRCE, or the Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative, talks about the Mental Immunity Project and how it is trying to combat the crisis of disinformation and people’s susceptibility to it.

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