前美国驻联合国大使妮基·黑利成为第一个批评参议员汤米·特伯维尔的共和党总统候选人。，封锁高级军事提名。
哈利说五角大楼的政策报销出差堕胎人员的费用特伯维尔的愤怒之源被误导了，但她坚持认为特伯维尔的戏剧对军队有负面影响。
“我很欣赏特伯维尔正在努力做的事情。我知道。好像国防部这样做是完全错误的。但我们是否已经变得如此之低，以至于我们不得不采取这种方式来阻止它?”她继续说休·休伊特的广播节目星期二。
这位候选人告诉休伊特:“肯定有其他方法可以做到这一点。”。
海莉利用了她丈夫6月部署吉布提支持非洲之角的持久自由行动。
“对于我在海外服役的丈夫，以及所有那些男女军人来说，这是他们回顾和看到的，这是他们除了保持自身安全和远离家人之外还要应对的压力，这种想法是错误的，”哈利说。
“你知道，他们把这些促销活动挂在那里，把它们当作素材，”她补充道。
上周五，在阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利为阿拉巴马州共和党举行的每张250美元的筹款会上，特伯维尔介绍了前总统唐纳德·特朗普，他说特朗普度过了“艰难的一周”，并敦促与会者“支持他”。特朗普和特伯维尔都没有在参议院提到特伯维尔的机动。
哈利的南卡罗莱纳州同胞、参议员蒂姆·斯科特是特伯维尔竞选提名的唯一参议员同事，他尚未发表评论。
哈利和特朗普的公开露面让人们了解到，如果竞选总司令的候选人对乔·拜登总统目前试图填补的空缺做出同样的军事任命，他们将如何处理封锁。
民主党人一直敦促参议院共和党人内部解决问题。康涅狄格州民主党参议员克里斯·墨菲(Chris Murphy)呼吁共和党人制定一个“非常有针对性的临时程序变革”，以开始推动军事提名。
“也许当我们9月份回来时，对创造性的解决方案会有一些开放，(因为)Tuberville不会让步。这位康涅狄格州的民主党人说:“他认为自己已经成为了边缘右翼的名人英雄。
墨菲说，尽管最初对清除封锁持乐观态度，但他后来得出的结论是，特伯维尔“准备烧毁军队。”
“我认为每个人都希望参议员Tuberville会让步，我认为我们必须得出结论，这是不会发生的，他准备烧毁军队，”墨菲告诉小山.
参议员汤米·特伯维尔(阿拉巴马州共和党。)，2023年8月4日在阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利介绍前总统唐纳德·特朗普之前，在阿拉巴马州共和党的筹款活动上发表讲话。
布奇·迪尔/美联社
五角大楼正在努力反击国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀所说的“前所未有的全面控制的“级联效应”。奥斯汀上周在一份备忘录中说，封锁“越来越阻碍这个部门的正常运作，破坏我们的军事准备和国家安全”。
奥斯汀建议允许低级军官在“特殊情况下”以代理身份领导通常由四星上将或海军上将领导的组织。
特伯维尔和奥斯汀之间就此事的电话联系至今没有结果。
截至7月26日，特伯维尔拥有273个高级军事提名。这些人包括海军陆战队和陆军的最高级别军官。下周，海军最高官员将加入这一名单，9月底，取代马克·米利将军担任参谋长联席会议主席的提名人——美国最高军事官员——将面临参议院的审查。
参议院军事委员会报告650名军官将在年底前要求参议院批准，110名将被迫同时执行两项任务。
参议院将在8月休会后带着克服封锁的新压力返回，这将在9月进入第九个月。
Tuberville's stonewalling of military confirmations draws first criticism from a GOP presidential hopeful
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley became the first GOP presidential hopeful to criticize Sen. Tommy Tuberville's, R-Ala., blockade of senior military nominations.
Haley said the Pentagon's policy ofreimbursing personnel who travel for abortions-- the source of Tuberville's ire -- is misguided, but she maintained that the Tuberville play is having adverse effects on the military.
"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?" she said onHugh Hewitt's radio programTuesday.
"There's got to be other ways to go about doing this," the candidate told Hewitt.
Haley drew upon the fact that her husbanddeployed in Juneto Djibouti in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Horn of Africa.
"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," Haley said.
"They're, you know, dangling these promotions out there and using them as fodder," she added.
Introducing former President Donald Trump at a $250-per-ticket fundraiser for the Alabama Republican Party in Montgomery, Alabama, on Friday, Tuberville said Trump has had a "tough week" and urged attendees to "stand behind him." Neither Trump nor Tuberville mentioned Tuberville's maneuver in the Senate.
Haley's fellow South Carolinian, Sen. Tim Scott, the only Senate colleague of Tuberville's running for the nomination, has not offered a comment.
The public appearances from both Haley and Trump offer insight into how the candidates, who are vying to become commander in chief, would hypothetically handle blockades if they made the same military appointments to the same vacancies President Joe Biden is currently attempting to fill.
Democrats have long urged Senate Republicans to settle the matter internally. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., called on Republicans to develop a "very targeted, temporary change in process" to begin moving military nominations.
"Maybe when we get back in September there will be some openness to creative solutions [because] Tuberville is not going to back down. He thinks he's become a celebrity folk hero in the fringe right," the Connecticut Democrat said.
Murphy said that despite initial optimism about clearing the blockade, he has since reached the conclusion that Tuberville "is prepared to burn the military down."
"I think everybody's been hoping that Sen. Tuberville would back down, and I think we have to come to the conclusion that that is not happening and that he is prepared to burn the military down," Murphy told theHill.
The Pentagon is scrambling to counter what Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin termed the "cascading effect" of "the unprecedented, across-the-board hold." The blockade is "increasingly hindering the normal operations of this Department and undermining both our military readiness and our national security," Austin said in a memo last week.
Austin recommended allowing lower-level officers to lead organizations ordinarily led by a four-star general or admiral in an acting capacity "in extraordinary cases."
Phone calls between Tuberville and Austin on the matter have so far been fruitless.
As of July 26, Tuberville's holds number 273 senior military nominations. Those include the highest-ranking military officers in the Marine Corps and Army. Next week, the top officer in the Navy will join the list, and at the end of September, the nominee to replace Gen. Mark Milley as chairman of the Joint Chiefs -- the top military officer in the country -- will face Senate scrutiny.
The Senate Armed Services Committeereports650 officers will require Senate confirmation by the end of the year and 110 will be forced to perform two jobs simultaneously.
The Senate will return from August recess with renewed pressure to overcome the blockade, which will enter a ninth month in September.
