WASHINGTON – The White House is ramping up the pressure on Republicans over Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blocking of hundreds of promotions for military officers, apparently seeking to make the GOP pay a price with voters if it persists, according to a new memo obtained for the first time. time on NBC News. .
In the memo to “Stakeholders,” the White House ramps up the rhetoric against Tuberville, R-Ala., and paints the GOP more broadly as facilitators of its effort, accusing them of mounting “barely a word of protest.”
“Right now, a Republican senator is choosing to erode military readiness and abuse military families in pursuit of an extreme and unrelated anti-liberty agenda, with hardly a sound from his fellow Republicans,” the communications adviser wrote in the memo. of the White House, Andrew Bates. , of July 13.
He added that the blockade is “exploiting service members as pawns,” hurting military readiness and risking a “brain drain” from the Pentagon. “It’s even subjecting families serving with members to excruciating uncertainty, like not knowing where the kids will go to school or where the spouses might work.”
“These actions go beyond substantive party differences and go squarely against basic American principles. Yet this is being done with barely a word of protest from fellow Tuberville Republicans.”
The memo, titled “Mainstream Results on Divisiveness, Extremes and Chaos,” offers a window into how Biden frames the contrast between his White House and his Republican opposition. As Biden steps up his 2024 re-election campaign using similar arguments against the GOP, the White House presents the Tuberville blockade in protest of the Pentagon’s abortion policy as a national security issue and will “continue to highlight the real-time damage that this is causing.” doing,” said one attendee.
It comes after Biden, asked about the issue on a trip to Finland on Thursday, called the Alabama senator’s position “ridiculous” and said Tuberville was “endangering the security of the United States.”
“I hope the Republican Party will rise up, stand up, and do something about it. It is in his power to do that,” Biden said.
When asked for comment, the Biden re-election campaign referred NBC News to the White House.
Tuberville was not chastised for Thursday’s reaction and said in an interview that he will not back down on his blockade until the Pentagon rescinds its policy of covering the travel costs of service members who leave their state for abortions.
“If he had been president, he would have called me a long time ago,” Tuberville said. “I understand that we have many problems in this country. We have a lot of problems abroad and, and he got, that’s a tough job. I can’t imagine doing that. So, you know, he got really excited about me and foreign soil. I wish he hadn’t done that.”
Some Republicans on Capitol Hill have opposed Tuberville’s tactics, though they agree with his political objective on abortion. But Tuberville isn’t feeling the heat: He told NBC News that he has faced “zero” party pressure from him to remove the ban on him.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebraska, who represents a district Biden won in 2020, said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin should sit down with Tuberville and come to a compromise.
“Why can’t the secretary sit down with Senator Tuberville?” said the bacon. “It is not so difficult.”
Austin and Tuberville spoke Thursday afternoon, according to spokespersons for both.
ryan nobles, Garrett Haake, Liz Brown-Kaiser and Michael Mitsanas contributed.
