Former Sen. Claire McCaskill Torches Tommy Tuberville With ‘Dumbest People’ Line

Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Tuesday ripped Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) as “one of the dumbest people that ever walked the earth in terms of political decisions” over his blockade of hundreds of military promotions, which could soon be coming to an end.

Tuberville has for nine months blocked promotions in protest of a Pentagon policy on reimbursing travel for abortion care. It’s left some service members working multiple roles and comes amid an escalation of violence in the Middle East.

McCaskill told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace she was stunned that Tuberville picked the military in particular to make his point.

It was “just amazing to me that a Republican from Alabama” would pull such a stunt with the armed forces, she said.

“Of all places to choose, he has all these executive agencies, he chose the military where he is going to have the least support from his party for doing what he is doing,” McCaskill added.

Last week, the patience of Senate Republicans finally wore thin and Tuberville came under fire from colleagues including Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah). On Tuesday, Tuberville signaled he was open to negotiating an end to his much-criticized stance.