Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday he doesn’t support Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) hold on almost 200 senior DOD nominations.

“I don’t support putting a hold on military nominations,” McConnell told reporters, as The Hill reported.

Tuberville, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is continuing the hold in protest of the Pentagon’s policy of giving time off and reimbursing travel expenses for any service member who needs to travel to another state for reproductive care.

Tuberville made more headlines in Alabama Wednesday when he told Birmingham public radio station WBHM that President Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are too focused on weeding white nationalists out of the military, which he said is impacting retention.

“The Democrats are attacking our military, saying we need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists, people that don’t believe in our agenda, as Joe Biden’s agenda,” Tuberville said.

When asked earlier in the interview about “white nationalists in the military,” Tuberville said, “Well, they call them that. I call them Americans.”

DOD photo by U.S. Air Force TSgt. Jack Sanders