Nikki Haley criticizes GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville's military blockade

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Tuesday argued that the monthslong hold Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., has imposed on military nominations is having a detrimental effect on service members as well as military readiness.

"There’s got to be other ways to go about doing this," Haley said on conservative Hugh Hewitt's radio show about Tuberville's blockade on military promotions, adding that service members don't feel like anyone has the military's back.

Tuberville has blocked nominees in the Senate from receiving promotions for more than 250 high-ranking military officers over a Defense Department policy that pays for the travel expenses of service members who go to other states for reproductive health care services, including abortions.

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Senate Democrats pressure Republican Sen. Tuberville to end military blockade

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Service members "look at the fact that they’re, you know, dangling these promotions out there and using them as fodder," said Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and governor of South Carolina. "I mean, they’re looking at the fact that people don’t see these, you know, men and women who serve as heroes anymore. And that’s sad, and it’s terrible. And you know, I appreciate what Tuberville’s trying to do. I do. Like, it’s totally wrong that the Department of Defense is doing this. But have we gotten so low that this is how we have to go about stopping it?"

Haley said the Pentagon shouldn't have instituted this policy in the first place.

"You know, for my husband who’s serving overseas, and for all those military men and women, the idea that this is what they’re looking back and seeing, and this is what they are dealing with on top of the stresses of keeping themselves safe and being away from their families, it’s wrong," she said.

Haley voiced frustration with the fact that many families, as a result of Tuberville's hold, are in limbo. "It’s incredibly stressful for the family. But it’s incredibly stressful for the service member because their life is on hold," she said.

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Asked for comment, Tuberville spokesman Steven Stafford said he didn't view Haley's comments as criticism, saying, "She regrets that it is necessary but doesn’t seem to dispute that it is indeed necessary." Stafford also noted that the hold is on nominees for generals and admirals, not all officers in the military.

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Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the polls for the GOP presidential nomination, has remained silent on the issue, including over the weekend when he took the stage with Tuberville in Alabama for a campaign event.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, also running for the White House, defended Tuberville's blockade in an interview with Hewitt last month. "They are funding abortion tourism, which is not an appropriate thing for the military to be doing,” DeSantis said. “So I think our Republicans in the Congress should just take a stand on this. The DOD [Department of Defense] should stand down."

Tuberville has spoken to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin several times, but he hasn't relented. President Joe Biden and the White House have repeatedly blasted his effort. Last month, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said that the Defense Department was unlikely to change the policy that Tuberville is protesting. "It’s the right thing to do, and I don’t think we’re going to change it,” she told NBC News.