Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has been making a splash in the news lately. The freshman senator is single-handedly blocking the promotion of hundreds of generals, admirals, and military officers over his stubborn opposition to a Defense Department policy that covers travel expenses for service members who need to go out of state to obtain abortions.

The promotion of each and every military officer hinges on unanimous Senate support, but the Tuberville blockade has paused some 256 officer promotions, including the head of the Marines (which now has no official chief for the first time in 164 years). The Alabama senator’s ridiculous stunt is forcing less experienced leaders into top jobs and raising concerns at the Pentagon about military readiness. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has warned that Tuberville’s blockade “harms America’s national security” and poses a “clear risk” to the military’s readiness. 

Before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2020, Tuberville was the head football coach at Auburn University, and before that head football coach at the University of Mississippi., Texas Tech and the University of Cincinnati. 

Before running for the Senate he had no experience in U.S. politics.

Tuberville also has no military experience, yet he sits on the Veterans Affairs and Armed Services committees. However, in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Tuberville stated that his father was “career military” and that “there is nobody more military than me.” This Trumpy statement from a person who has never served is both pompous and ironic and is a slap in the face of each and every man and woman enlisted in our military.

Senator “there is nobody more military than me” has been caught lying about his father’s military service during WWII. He claims his father enlisted at age 16, become a tank commander who earned five Bronze Stars, landed at Normandy Beach on D-Day, and drove a tank through Paris when U.S. forces freed the city from Nazi control. The truth is his father was a corporal, did not earn five bronze stars, and most likely did not drive a tank through Paris as after-action reports for his tank battalion show they were about 90 miles away from the city at the time.

While campaigning for his Senate seat, Tuberville promised to donate “every dime I make when I’m in Washington, D.C.” to veterans in his home state. He has yet to deliver on this promise.

Tuberville is another politician pandering to anti-abortion voters while lying about his father’s combat experience in an effort to make him look pro-life and military-friendly.

Tuberville says he won’t drop his hold unless a vote on the Pentagon’s abortion policy comes to the Senate floor. But that’s not all. He also demanded that if the vote fails, the White House and Pentagon must rescind the policy. Recently, the House narrowly passed the National Defense Authorization Act with an amendment attached that would end the Pentagon’s policy on abortion, however, it’s unlikely the provision will be included in the Senate-passed version of the bill.

Tuberville’s brainless blockade is proof that he’s not beyond sacrificing U.S. national security and the careers of hundreds of servicemen and women in order to appease a voter base that cares little for a woman’s right to choose, or the military in general.