'Like a car wreck on the interstate': GOP senators wage late-night battle with Tuberville over military

Four Republican members of the US Senate went toe-to-toe with two of their own colleagues late Wednesday night over hundreds of military promotions that have remained in stasis for months.

Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Todd Young (R-Indiana) tried for the second time to push through the confirmation of hundreds of US military promotions in the early morning hours to no avail. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) was joined in his blockade by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who reportedly joined Tuberville's side not just over his abortion-related hold, but to protect procedural rules that allow a lone senator to block nominations. CNN producer Morgan Rimmer live-tweeted the hours-long exchange on the Senate floor.

"WOW. Graham threatens to vote to temporarily change the Senate rules if Tuberville doesn't find another solution: 'I promise you this — this will be the last holiday this happens. If it takes me to vote to break loose these folks, I will,' Rimmer tweeted, quoting Graham.

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Rimmer tweeted that Lee defended Tuberville's ongoing blockade of confirmations, calling a Pentagon policy that reimburses service members' travel costs to obtain abortion care out of state if they live in a state that criminalized it “lawless" and "godless." Lee also said President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “lost [their] freaking minds” after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The four senators' confrontation with Tuberville and Lee reportedly lasted from approximately 12:15 AM to 3:45 AM, and ended with nearly 400 senior military officers still no closer to having their promotions confirmed. CNN congressional reporter Manu Raju tweeted early Thursday morning that Sen. Graham will now attempt a rules change to circumvent Tuberville's hold.

"We’re not going to let this keep getting worse and worse. We’re at 400-something officers held. It’s like a car wreck on the interstate," Graham told Raju after the procedural battle. "I’m not going to let this go on forever."

Aside from Graham's efforts to temporarily change US Senate rules, a separate effort spearheaded by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) has reportedly been underway for months to end-run Tuberville. Sinema is hoping to get nine Republicans to join all Senate Democrats in order to obtain the 60 votes necessary to officially end Tuberville's obstruction of military confirmations.

READ MORE: Kyrsten Sinema has 'quietly worked for four months' to get votes needed to break Tuberville's blockade