Senate Armed Services Committee member Rick Scott slammed colleague Tammy Duckworth for reportedly holding up more than 1,000 military promotions until the White House promises not to deny promotion to Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.
“It’s unacceptable that Senator Duckworth is willing to hold up important military confirmations and play politics with our men and women in uniform that risk their lives every day to protect us,” Scott, a Florida Republican, told the Washington Examiner in a statement about his Illinois Democratic colleague.
“I hope my colleague decides to put the security of our nation first and drops her holds on the confirmations of these military promotions,” he added.
In February, Ukrainian-born Vindman, then a National Security Council adviser at the White House, was fired by President Trump after testifying against him in an impeachment hearing.
Duckworth reportedly asked the Department of Defense to assure that Vindman would remain on the list of promotions and that the Pentagon would not allow the White House to interference in the routine promotions process.
The Pentagon and the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, which handles such holds, did not respond to requests by the Washington Examiner for comment.
Any senator can hold up nominations.
“If he’s on the list, he deserves to go forward in a routine way, as everyone else,” Duckworth told NPR last week when she signaled that she would hold up the nominations.
Duckworth, herself a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army who lost both legs in combat, is on the shortlist for the vice-presidential nod from presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
