Last Tuesday’s historic comeback victory for Donald J. Trump was one for the ages. It sent a clear message to the Democrat Party, Corporate Media, elites, and globalists that Americans are fed up with the agenda they’ve crammed down our throats for the last four years. A majority of voters decided that the America First agenda, championed by Donald Trump and JD Vance, is the playbook for American greatness.

With the election season now in the rearview mirror, Senators will return to Washington and select the next Senate Republican Majority Leader this week. The American people gave Republicans in the Senate a mandate to deliver the platform that President Trump ran on. For this reason, only a Republican Senator that enthusiastically embraces this mandate will receive my support for Majority Leader.

I encourage all my Senate colleagues to listen to the American people and follow suit. Senate Republicans must choose a Senate Republican Majority Leader that reflects the will of the American people. Only Senators who share the President-elect’s America First vision for the next four years should be considered for this job.

First and foremost, any candidate for GOP Majority Leader must commit to prioritizing legislation that closes the border and facilitates deportations, reins in wasteful spending, restores America’s energy independence, reshores American manufacturing, and purges our military of wokeness so it is once again the most lethal fighting force in the world.

The nightmarish last four years of this administration have done serious damage to our Republic. There is no time to waste. The Senate Republican Majority Leader must demonstrate a commitment to passing legislation in each of these categories. The leader needs to go big or go home and deliver on President Trump’s agenda.

In addition to these legislative priorities, the GOP Majority Leader should voice support for enacting reforms to the leader’s powers—decentralizing the authority of the office. My friend and colleague Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has drafted a number of excellent reforms that will give all Republican Senators a seat at the table in order to represent the varying needs of each state and help enact conservative policies to benefit all Americans.

Some of these reforms include allowing rank-and-file conservative Senators the opportunity to vote on amendments on important bills, providing Senators with enough time to review massive spending bills, and providing a schedule for the consideration of separate spending bills instead of jamming through ominous bills at the eleventh hour.

One of the most important reforms proposed by Senator Lee is requiring the majority support of the Senate Republican Conference before moving on legislation. It encourages Republican Senators to unify around bills. In essence, all of these reforms will make sure the Senate is an institution for the people and by the people, not the elites.

In addition to passing legislation that codifies President Trump’s proposed agenda, a prospective Senate Republican Majority Leader must ensure that Senate Republicans are not undermining President Trump’s objectives, legislatively or otherwise. It’s no secret that this has been an issue in the past.

The last thing the President-elect should deal with is a RINO Senate acting as a thorn in his side. President Trump has been through hell and back fighting for the American people. He survived two assassination attempts, partisan lawfare from a corrupt administration, and baseless lies from the Corporate Media who tried their best to keep him out of the White House. The right Senate Republican Majority Leader for the job will make President Trump’s job easier, not harder.

Finally, a Republican Majority Leader needs to have the courage to push back against the corrupt media. The leader of the Republican-controlled Senate should realize by now that the mainstream media has zero credibility and is the enemy of the people. Put simply, if Jimmy Kimmel is upset with Republicans in the Senate, the leader is doing the right thing.

You can expect mainstream media outlets to begin labeling Republicans with the vilest of names these next few years. We saw that repeatedly during President Trump’s first term. A Majority Leader shouldn’t care one bit about what the media is saying. The Leader must commit to delivering an America First agenda to the American people, regardless of what the mainstream media says.

The Senate Republican Conference should have complete confidence in supporting a leader that will adhere to these propositions. For the first time in two decades, a Republican President won the popular vote and the electoral college. Both chambers of Congress are in Republican control. Americans sent Democrats packing, and Republicans to Washington, because it’s unsatisfied with business as usual. Americans want every part of President Trump’s agenda—and they want it now.

For these reasons, I am supporting Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) for Majority Leader. He has been a champion for the America First movement and will shake up the status quo in Washington.

As my Senate colleagues return to Washington, I will encourage all of them to take these ideas into consideration. By selecting the right Senate leadership, we can deliver on the American people’s mandate and restore faith in our system of government. A new American Golden Age is within reach, and Senator Rick Scott can help President Donald Trump deliver for all Americans.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., the former head football coach at Auburn University, the University of Mississippi, Texas Tech, and the University of Cincinnati, made the statement on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo.

“He told me a year ago, Maria, when we were playing golf one day. He says, ‘Coach, I’m going to have a great chance of winning New York.’ I said, ‘You’ve lost your mind.’ He goes, ‘You wait and see. We’re going to work New York hard, we’re gonna get the people and tell people the truth about what’s happening, and we’re going to clean our city and our states up around the country, and New York’s going to be one of them.’ So, hey, he’s giving it a run for it, and I think he’s got a good chance.”

U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville: #Trump has a 'good chance' of winning state of New York in presidential race #Election2024 pic.twitter.com/LlJnxW6g8x

— WorldNetDaily (@worldnetdaily) October 27, 2024

“Wow, that is incredible, if he were to take New York,” Bartiromo responded, as she noted large crowds of Trump fans waiting outside Madison Square Garden in New York City for a Trump campaign rally scheduled for 5 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

New York has most often voted for the more liberal candidate in U.S. elections, and has been a safe haven for Democrats since the 1988 contest, with former President Ronald Reagan being the last Republican to take the Empire State in 1984, when he won a 49-state landslide.

Bartiromo then asked Tuberville, who also sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee: “Do you think you could do a Republican sweep here?”

“I think we could – it’s going to be very close,” he replied.

“Again, I don’t know much about the House. I think the Senate – I think we’re going to get 51-54 seats in the Senate, just the work that I’ve seen over the last four or five months. And, of course, President Trump, he’s run a very the strong campaign the last three weeks, Maria.”

“He’s got to win. Our country is in such tailspin. The people that say they might not vote for Trump is the young people, and they’re voting against their future. I don’t understand that.

“I’ve been trying to tell all these young people across the country your future is at stake if you don’t elect somebody that believes in America, and believes in the Constitution like President Trump, you’re gonna have a tough time in life. So, looking forward to working, hopefully, with a lot of these young kids and getting them to vote for President Trump.”

Follow Joe on Twitter @JoeKovacsNews

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The bipartisan move was to break a “hold” placed by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., on more than 300 military promotions to force Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to drop the Pentagon’s abortion policy.

Tuberville and most other Republicans said Austin’s policy is illegal and violates the Hyde Amendment, a decades old measure that prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said both Austin and Tuberville were “taking intractable positions.”

“If each senator held up military promotions until we got our way, the military would grind to a halt,” Romney said. “Sen. Tuberville correctly pointed out what Secretary Austin did is against the law. We have a process when something is against the law. It’s the court process.”

In a floor speech, Tuberville said he reveres the U.S. military and respects his colleagues’ commitment to being pro-life. He said the disagreement is about abortion, but also about the rule of law.

“There is no law that allowed [the Pentagon] to do this. There is a law that says they can’t do this,” Tuberville said. The Alabama Republican added: “This is about whether the Pentagon can make law. The only institution I honor more than the military is the Constitution.”

The issue is narrowly contested because Republicans hold 49 seats in the Senate and Democrats hold 48, but can count on the votes of three independents.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts defended Tuberville.

“The fact that some Republicans would pressure their own, as opposed to pressuring Biden on his DEI nonsense (at the Defense Department, no less!), is outrageous,” Roberts wrote earlier Wednesday in a post on X, formerly Twitter. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)

The fact that some Republicans would pressure their own, as opposed to pressuring Biden on his DEI nonsense (at the Defense Department, no less!), is outrageous. https://t.co/Xsrr1kKe9c

— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) November 1, 2023

Throughout the night, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, read off numerous Biden nominees for military promotions and made a motion to bring each promotion up for a vote. Each time, Tuberville objected to the Senate’s taking a vote.

“I am pro-life to the core,” Sullivan said, but added, “The holds pose a strategic risk to our forces.”

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a military veteran, talked about how she was a mother. Now her daughter serves in the Army, Ernst said, and is about to be a mother.

Ernst also read off names and detailed the qualifications of military leaders whose promotions were being held as a result of Tuberville’s challenge to the Pentagon.

Ernst described herself as “adamantly and unabashedly pro-life.”

“The DOD is waging war on the unborn, a war that is immoral and illegal,” Ernst said of the Defense Department.

But, the Iowa Republican said, the military officers whose promotions were being held up aren’t responsible for Austin’s abortion policy.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., agreed, saying, “What this is going to do is open up a Pandora’s box” on objecting to nominees for military promotions every time a senator disagrees with a policy.

“If we require the military to be subordinate to civilian control, why would we punish them for something they had nothing to do with?” Graham said.

Tuberville has put a “hold” on Biden’s military nominees, protesting the Department of Defense’s policy offering taxpayer funds to pay for service members’ travel expenses when they seek to get abortions. This means he objects to “unanimous consent,” the process by which the Senate rubber-stamps an entire bloc of nominees without a recorded vote. It does not mean Tuberville is single-handedly preventing the Senate from voting on the nominees individually, as Democrats like Schumer appear to suggest.

On Thursday, Schumer celebrated the fact that the Senate has confirmed over 140 of Biden’s judicial nominees. By celebrating this, the Democrat tacitly admitted that he prioritized judges over military personnel, Tuberville and other Republicans argued.

“Sen. Schumer is all talk,” Tuberville told The Daily Signal in a statement Thursday. “He is bragging about how many judges he has confirmed while refusing to bring a single military nomination to the floor. If he was really concerned about readiness, he would call a vote today.”

“My position has not changed. I will continue to hold nominees until Biden reverses his illegal taxpayer-funded abortion travel policy,” the senator added.

This Senate has confirmed over 140 judges—including 36 Circuit Court Judges, 104 District Court Judges, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, the historic nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court!

And we will continue the work to advance more of @POTUS's highly qualified nominees.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) September 14, 2023

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, characterized Schumer’s tweet as saying “the quiet part out loud.”

“He can pass any nominations he wants, he simply refuses to bring up military promotions for a vote!” Lee added.

.@SenSchumer just said the quiet part out loud: he can pass any nominations he wants, he simply refuses to bring up military promotions for a vote! https://t.co/TCAQJaQF7c

— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) September 14, 2023

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., condemned Democrats like Schumer as “complete hypocrites,” urging them to rescind the Department of Defense’s “illegal policy of funding abortions with taxpayer” funds.

“If they want to confirm a general, they can bring the nominee up for a vote,” Johnson added.

The GOP is the party of life and the rule of law.

Democrats are being complete hypocrites, they should rescind @DeptofDefense's illegal policy of funding abortions with taxpayer $’s.

If they want to confirm a general, they can bring the nominee up for a vote. pic.twitter.com/3icztukvZi

— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) September 14, 2023

“The Senate didn’t vote today,” Tuberville noted Wednesday. “We’ve had 80 days off this year. Plus weekends. And [Schumer] wants to lecture me about nominations?”

Schumer has repeatedly condemned the Alabama senator’s move, calling it “dangerous and reckless.”

“Sen. Tuberville’s indefinite hold on the confirmation of our general and flag officers is reckless, unprecedented, harmful to our military’s readiness, and sends the wrong message to our partners and allies,” Schumer said in May. He cited a letter from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin claiming that Tuberville’s hold poses a “clear risk” to military readiness.

Schumer did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment on whether his celebration of judicial confirmations undermines his attempts to blame Tuberville for the confirmation delays.

The Washington Examiner’s Conn Carroll, a former Senate staffer, wrote that Democrats could have approved 108 military promotions if they worked an eight-hour day five days a week instead of leaving town for a month this summer.

John Aquilino, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that Tuberville’s holds are having “no impact” on operations.

Critics have condemned many of Biden’s military nominees as “woke,” citing their advocacy for liberal issues such as gun control and their warnings about “white colonels” being the “biggest barriers” to “racial justice.” Schumer may be attempting to protect vulnerable Democratic senators from taking on-the-record votes for divisive nominees.

Tuberville has successfully blocked the confirmations of over 300 military nominees in the Senate since February out of protest of the Pentagon’s abortion policy, which funds female service members’ travel while seeking an out-of-state abortion. Crenshaw expressed his frustration with Tuberville’s blockade and feared “worsening consequences” in a text exchange with Republican allies, according to Politico.

“[I am] at a point where I’m going to tear apart (if asked) coach/Senator/non-veteran Tuberville for personally attacking service members who have spent almost 30 years serving our country,” Crenshaw said in a text exchange. “I don’t know what outcome he expected, but I’m hearing more and more that his actions are having worsening consequences.

Thank you, @SenKevinCramer . pic.twitter.com/056fQzIVXh

— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) September 14, 2023

Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti said that Tuberville’s hold will take the military “years to recover” from if not lifted soon, during her confirmation hearing on Thursday. Franchetti is currently nominated for the Chief of Naval operations position but will only be able to fill the role as in an acting capacity due to the blockade.

Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said during Franchetti’s confirmation that Tuberville’s hold will cause disruptions in Navy operations at every level, and further strain the branch’s recruiting crisis.

“The price our nation will pay for the reckless behavior of Senator Tuberville will reach far into the future,” Warren said.

Tuberville contends that his blockade is not hurting military effectiveness, and is solely intended to target service members at the highest levels. Tuberville also noted that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer could hold individual confirmation votes, which he has thus far refused to do.

Tuberville told Franchetti during Thursday’s confirmation hearing that he looks forward to seeing her in the Navy and encouraged her to put politics aside in her new role.

“I know you can do that job – I’m looking forward to it,” Tuberville told Franchetti.

Crenshaw and Tuberville did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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“If the senator does not come to his senses before Gen. [Mark] Milley retires, fully half of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—our nation’s most vital military leaders—will be empty,” Reed, D-R.I., declared.

Reed proceeded to talk for more than 15 minutes, questioning the motives of Tuberville, R-Ala., and warning of a dire situation if these high-ranking miliary officers weren’t approved for promotion by the Senate.

Yet during his speech, Reed never once mentioned that it was the decision of Democratic leaders—not Tuberville—to prevent the 300 officers from receiving a Senate vote on their promotions.

Tuberville has said on numerous occasions, including this week, that Democrats could proceed with individual votes for each nominee. Instead, he’s objecting to “unanimous consent,” the Senate process of rubber-stamping an entire bloc of nominees without a recorded vote.

Take the case of Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, who President Joe Biden has nominated to replace Milley as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Reed cited Brown’s pending promotion Wednesday while pointing to the poster behind him.

“I’m concerned the senator does not appreciate the gravity of this situation,” Reed said of Tuberville. “These positions cannot simply be filled by other officers. They can only be temporarily covered by their vice chiefs, who must also continue to cover their own jobs. … These are extraordinary challenging times, and the jobs of our vice chiefs are just as important and challenging as the chief of staff or the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

He accused Tuberville of a plot to “extort the Pentagon” while doing so for “his own political gain.”

Senate Rule XIX stipulates that “No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator … any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.”

In 1 speech @SenJackReed made 3 dubious accusations against @SenTuberville.

Videos

— Rob Bluey (@RobertBluey) September 7, 2023

As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Reed is responsible for shepherding nominees such as Brown through his committee, which approved his promotion July 20.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., could have scheduled a vote for Brown before the Senate left for its monthlong August recess or when senators returned this week. But instead of doing so, Democrats reserved time for confirmation votes on Federal Reserve and National Labor Relations Board nominees.

“Chuck Schumer can bring them to the floor one at a time as quick and as fast as he wants to, but he won’t do it because that’s an admittance of being wrong,” Tuberville said in an interview with Newsmax’s Greg Kelly.

Tuberville: 'We're going to have holds for a long, long time, and they can just get used to it'https://t.co/L5BMk6Mq7p

— 1819 News (@1819News) September 6, 2023

The Washington Examiner’s Conn Carroll, a former Senate staffer, crunched the numbers and discovered Democrats could have approved 108 military promotions if they worked an eight-hour day, five days a week instead of leaving town for a month.

“I’m sorry to the officers who have been inconvenienced by Tuberville’s holds, but if these nominations were really an issue of national security, maybe Senate Democrats could have skipped even just one day of their August vacation to confirm even just one of them,” Carroll wrote.

Don’t expect Democrats to change course. In fact, Reed acknowledged to Punchbowl News that Brown and other “vital military leaders” would continue to wait.

Another interesting nugget — Milley’s term ends Oct. 1. The Senate usually holds a floor vote on the Joint Chiefs chair nomination.

But REED told @maxpcohen that this shouldn’t happen bc it would set a precedent for all the others Tuberville is blocking.https://t.co/zMsrXiwov3

— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) September 6, 2023

“Democrats are hesitant to put Brown’s nomination on the floor because it would set a precedent for all of the other promotions the Alabama Republican is blocking,” Punchbowl reported.

“What do you do with the rest of them?” Reed told Punchbowl, revealing that Democrats are keen to continue playing political games in hopes that Tuberville will fold under pressure.

Don’t count on it.

“I know I’m doing the right thing,” Tuberville said in an interview on “The Daily Signal Podcast.” “I’m not going to change my mind unless they change this [abortion] policy back the way it was.”

"I am not holding up nominations because they can do them one at a time. I’m holding up the opportunity for them to just say, 'Listen, we want to do 300 at a time,' @SenTuberville says. https://t.co/iT68PKgU7r

— Samantha Aschieris (@samantharenck) September 7, 2023

Tuberville began blocking the promotions of flag officers and military generals in March over objections to the Defense Department’s taxpayer-funded abortion policy. He asserts the Pentagon’s policy was unlawfully implemented without congressional approval and that he won’t release his “hold” on the promotions until the policy is revoked.

The Pentagon’s policy provides three weeks of taxpayer-funded paid leave and reimbursement of travel expenses for military personnel and dependents who are seeking abortions. An estimate from the Rand Corp. predicts the number of abortions in the military eligible for taxpayer-covered expenses would skyrocket from 20 to more than 4,000 each year.

In his Newsmax interview, Tuberville said he would continue to withstand pressure from his Senate colleagues until the Pentagon reversed the abortion policy.

“They don’t know what pressure is. Try coaching in the SEC,” Tuberville said of college football’s Southeastern Conference, where he once was a coach for Auburn University. “There’s no way they’re going to talk me out of this. We’re going to have holds for a long, long time, and they can just get used to it.”

Article cross-posted from Daily Signal.

This time it’s Alabama’s senior senator having the gall to call out the Department of Defense and its unlawful policy of paying for personnel to travel out of state to have an abortion. Senator Tuberville has stepped up and placed a hold on all Pentagon promotions until the important issue gets resolved through the normal legislative process.

When former Auburn head football Coach Tuberville is attacked from all sides for simply asking for regular order, you begin to understand why America under the leadership of Joe Biden and Senator Majority leader Chuck Schumer is so badly off the rails. A recent Reuters survey found that a whopping 72 percent of those polled believe we’re headed in the wrong direction as a country, as opposed to 13 percent who think we’re on the right track.

The policy unilaterally put into place by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (Auburn Alumni) is the latest example of the Biden Administration bowing to the radical left at every turn and abusing power in the process. Senator Tuberville is arguing that if President Biden and Secretary Austin want their wrongheaded policy to continue, they need Congress to pass it into law. Just like in the case of Biden’s illegal student loan program that was recently blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court, the executive branch doesn’t make the law; that power rests with the legislative branch, per the U.S. Constitution. We’re talking about Politics 101 here. And sadly, scores of our leaders in Washington could use a refresher course.

Common sense demands such as this have been known to make the D.C. uni-party throw a temper tantrum and Senator Tuberville’s courageous stand is no exception. Tuberville deserves praise for standing up for life and asking inconvenient questions in a forum that was once known for robust debate: the United States Senate. He’s asking about fundamental things like, why has the Pentagon gotten itself into the abortion business in the first place?

No serious person can argue that this isn’t a legitimate point. The Defense Department is supposed to be fixated on keeping our country safe, not consumed with enacting the agenda of the woke leftist mob. That chuckle you hear is from Communist China as they remain laser focused on becoming the world’s next superpower.

The position of Senator Schumer and his swamp agents is as pathetic as it is predictable. The nominations and promotions that Senator Tuberville is holding up can be moved if the Democrat majority in the U.S. Senate would just roll up its sleeves and actually do some hard work for a change. For example, the Democrat chairman of the Armed Services Committee said recently that clearing the 260 blocked nominations “through the regular procedure would take 27 days with the Senate working ‘around the clock’ or 84 days if the Senate worked eight hours a day.”

You see, in Joe Biden’s broken Washington, working eight hours a day is a terrifying thought. This is precisely the tone deaf behavior that disgusts hardworking taxpayers and the reason why 80 percent of the American people support term limits for Members of Congress.

Just like when establishment politicians threaten that a government shutdown would cause the world to come to an end if their latest multi-trillion dollar omnibus spending bill doesn’t pass, those same voices are now claiming that Senator Tuberville’s actions weaken us on the world stage. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, getting back to some sanity and regular order in Washington would make our beloved constitutional republic far stronger.

So, if woke stooges Biden and Austin want their Pentagon abortion on demand policy to continue, they need to get it codified into law. Until then, the Senate should debate each nominee on the merits and vote on them one by one. Thank you Coach Tuberville for your inspirational leadership — and doing your job.

David N. Bossie is president of Citizens United, and he served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President in 2016. @David_Bossie @Citizens_United

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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