AP Lisa Franchetti
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 22:24
US President Biden has nominated Admiral Lisa Franchetti to lead the Navy. She would be the first woman to hold this position and the first woman to join the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the most powerful military agency in America.
Franchetti has 38 years of experience in the armed forces. “Admiral Franchetti was the second woman ever to achieve this rank, and is highly skilled at both executive and policy level,” Biden said.
Biden’s preference came as a surprise to the Pentagon, the Department of Defense. There was an expectation that the admiral leading the navy in the Pacific would be pushed forward.
Archconservative Republican
The appointment still needs to be approved by the Senate. That threatens to become a lingering issue because one senator, the arch-conservative Republican Tommy Tubersville of Alabama, has been blocking the process of military appointments and promotions for months. His arrangement means that for the first time in a century there is no commander in the Navy.
Tuberville is currently single-handedly blocking more than 270 military appointments over an abortion issue in the armed forces. The Department of Defense facilitates abortion arrangements for military personnel and their family members. They can get paid leave to have an abortion and they can also travel at the expense of the military to a state where abortion is allowed, if it is not the case in their home state.
Senator Tuberville does not want to vote on the nominations unless this regulation is abolished. He says the policy goes against the law. Last year, national abortion law was abolished in the United States, when the verdict in the illustrious lawsuit Roe vs. Wade reversed by the Supreme Court. As a result, states can now decide for themselves whether they allow abortion.
‘Republican problem’
Biden calls Tuberville’s obstruction a problem that the Republican Party must solve itself. “It is totally irresponsible what he is doing. I believe that the Republicans are no longer behind him, but they have to do something about it. Only then can this stop.”
A poll by The New York Times shows that not only Democrats disapprove of the reversal of abortion rights, but also that more and more Republicans are not happy with the stricter abortion laws.
2023-07-21 20:24:45
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