Senator Tommy Tuberville blocks promotion of top military commander over defense secretary’s secret hospitalization

Republican senator Tommy Tuberville is once again holding up the nomination of a key military official after he single-handedly blocked the promotions of hundreds of high-ranking officials last year as he protested service members’ abortion access.

Now, Tuberville is freezing the nomination of Lt. Gen. Ronald P. Clark to serve as the four-star commander of all Army forces in the Pacific.

The former Alabama football coach has accused Clark of hiding the hospitalization of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin from the White House earlier this year, a move that could revive the months-long outrage over Austin’s health and provoke partisan attacks to the military before the presidential election.

“He was very close to Lloyd Austin, he’s on his staff, and he made the decision not to let the commander in chief Joe Biden or let anybody else know that he was in the hospital,” Tuberville told right-wing outlet Newsmax on Tuesday. “I’m not going to lift the hold until we have a whole review.”

He claimed that both Democratic and Republican lawmakers wanted answers.

Pentagon spokesperson James Adamstold The Washington Post that additional holds on military promotions “undermine our military readiness.”

The Independent has requested comment from Tuberville’s office.

Last year, the senator blocked the promotion of hundreds of American military officials in protest of Pentagon policy to reimburse service members’ travel expenses for abortion care.

His months-long blockade left three branches of the military without confirmed leaders, a position that senior military officials warned had exposed the US to national security threats and put American service members in the middle of a politically caustic anti-abortion crusade.

At the time,