11 months ago
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Things got heated between Republicans on the Senate floor Wednesday night. During a four-hour stretch, several GOP senators—led by Joni Ernst of Iowa and Dan Sullivan of Alaska—slung daggers at Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama for taking a hatchet to U.S. military readiness. Tuberville has single-handedly staged a months-long blockade of more than 370 promotions because he objects to the Pentagon policy of making abortion care accessible to troops who need it.
But Team Tuberville's efforts have extended beyond a policy fight into making electoral threats against GOP colleagues, according to new reporting from Politico's Burgess Everett.
Tuberville Communications Director Steven Stafford emailed anti-abortion groups requesting that they threaten his boss' GOP detractors—or "squishes" as he called them—with a primary from the right if they vote to bypass Tuberville's blockade. The specific effort to pass such a resolution would require at least nine Republicans to join with Democrats in order to end Tuberville's blockade.
