Tommy Tuberville moves the goalposts on his military blockade, signaling he's tired of running defense for his unprecedented move

• Sen. Tommy Tuberville signaled that he's ready to end his blanket blockade of military promotions.
• His move came as senators, including Republicans, were ready to change the rules to stop him.
• Tuberville said he will now block just "woke" officers.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Thursday signaled that he is done running defense on his blanket move to block all military promotions, an unprecedented position that some of his Republican colleagues were turning against.

Tuberville told reporters that next week he will move to blocking just "woke" officers, likely releasing his hold on many of the more than 400 promotions in retaliation for a Biden administration policy that allows servicemembers to take leave to obtain an abortion.

"I think that we need to make sure that people that are our generals and admirals should be vetted to some degree, but also understand that we need to get these people promoted, and it's been a long time for some of them," Tuberville told reporters, per CNN.

Tuberville's apparent cave was not as abrupt as the former football coach's decision to leave Texas Tech for Cincinnati. Rather, the Alabama Republican was facing a Democratic-led push to change the rules to ram through his blockade. Republicans were reluctant to support the change, but some senators signaled that they would have no other choice but to do so if Tuberville did not relent.

At one point, Tuberville's hold caused the Army, Navy, and Marines to all go without top leaders.

Republican Senators Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Joni Ernst of Iowa, both veterans, have recently taken to the floor to protest Tuberville's actions.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made the decision to challenge Tuberville's holds on some nominations, including Gen. Charles Q. Brown's confirmation as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But Schumer largely left the resolution of Tuberville's blockade up to Republicans. Schumer said he was worried by the precedent of treating military promotions akin to political or judicial nominations.