Republican senators angrily challenged senator Tommy Tuberville on his blockade of almost 400 military officers on Wednesday evening, taking over the Senate floor for hours to call for individual confirmation votes after a monthslong stalemate.
Mr Tuberville stood and objected over and over again, extending his holds on the military confirmations and promotions with no immediate resolution in sight. But the extraordinary confrontation between Republicans, boiling over nine months after Mr Tuberville first announced the holds over a Pentagon abortion policy, escalated the standoff as Defense Department officials have repeatedly said the backlog of officials needing confirmation could endanger national security.
