Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., forced Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s hand Wednesday, resulting in floor votes for military nominations that had been stalled for months after the GOP senator prepared to issue a cloture vote.

Tuberville followed a Senate rule enabling a minority member to bring a cloture vote with 16 signatures. However, once Schumer, D-N.Y., received the petition on Wednesday, he changed course and opted to sidestep Tuberville, proceeding directly to the floor votes.

‘And so he blinked — we forced his hand,’ Tuberville told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday. ‘Now the American people can see they can do it, and hopefully he will continue to do it because I’m not changing my mind on the group at one time.’

As such, the Senate confirmed Gen. Charles ‘CQ’ Brown to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and will continue voting on two more nominations Thursday. However, Democrats remain unwavering on teeing up votes one-by-one for each member.

But Tuberville said his move showed people that Democrats could have voted on nominations one-by-one all along.

‘It’s not the path the vast majority of senators on either side of the aisle want to go down, but Sen. Tuberville is forcing us to confront his obstruction head-on,’ Schumer said on the floor Wednesday.

The votes come as 300 nominees remained in limbo due to Tuberville’s six-month hold over the Pentagon’s abortion policy, which covers some expenses for military personnel seeking to terminate a pregnancy.

Tuberville recognizes the abortion policy may not ever change now that votes are rolling, but ‘they’re going to hear a lot about it between now and November of next year,’ he said.

‘We’re getting ready to get into an election year, and we’re going to be pushing that very hard,’ Tuberville said. 

Tuberville, a retired college football coach, said in an August statement that the hold, which began in February, has given him ‘more time to look more closely into the background of some these nominees,’ which has prompted ‘deep concerns.’

At the time, Tuberville’s office pointed to an op-ed by Col. Ben Jonsson — one of President Biden’s nominees — published in the Air Force Times in July 2020 in which Jonsson lists examples of what he terms ‘white defensiveness’ in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

‘Defensiveness is a predictable response by white people to any discussion of racial injustice. White colonels are no exception,’ Jonsson wrote.

Tuberville said his six-month blockade has ‘opened the eyes of a lot of people around here about what kind of generals and admirals we have.’

‘We have a lot of strong ones, very qualified, that have worked very hard and done a great job for the American people in our country,’ he said. ‘But there’s some that just have moved up that don’t do anything but push diversity, equity and inclusion.’

Tuberville added, ‘Our military is not an equal opportunity employer, it is a military that is here to protect American citizens.’

The U.S. Senate confirmed Gen. Eric M. Smith as Commandant of the Marine Corps in a 96-0 vote on Thursday.

In July, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger relinquished his post, leaving the military branch without a confirmed leader for the first time in 164 years.

Then assistant commandant of Marine Corps, Smith took over as acting Commandant. Just two months prior, President Biden nominated Smith to lead the service.

Over the past 24 hours, the Senate also confirmed Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Randy A. George as the Chief of Staff to the Army.

Originally from Kansas City, Missouri and raised in Plano, Texas, Smith graduated from Texas A&M University and was commissioned into the Marines in 1987.

Since then, Smith has commanded at every level, according to his biography on Marines.mil, including Weapons Company; 2nd Battalion; 2nd Marine Regiment during Operation Assured Response in Monrovia, Liberia; 5th Regiment during Operation Iraqi Freedom; and 8th Marine Regiment during Operation Enduring Freedom.

Smith has also commanded the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Southern Command, 1st Marine Division, and more.

More recently, Smith’s assignments as a General Officer included Senior Military Assistant to both the Deputy Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Defense, as well as Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration.

‘I want to congratulate General Randy A. George and General Eric M. Smith on their confirmation as our nation’s next Chief of Staff of the Army and Commandant of the Marine Corps, respectively,’ Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said in a Department of Defense release. ‘They will each be incredible leaders of their Service and will work to strengthen and modernize our military for the challenges ahead.’

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., dressed down for an official meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Capitol, just days after the Senate dress code was altered.

Zelenskyy traveled to Washington, D.C., on Thursday to meet with President Biden and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, a trip that marks his second visit to the U.S.

While every other member of Congress appeared in a suit and tie to welcome Zelenskyy, Fetterman arrived in his usual casual attire — shorts, a short-sleeved shirt and tennis shoes.

Since getting sworn into office in January, Fetterman has been known for showing up to work in gym shorts and sweatshirts — an uncommon choice for most senators.

While Thursday marks only one of many occurrences where Fetterman appeared in casual clothing to the Senate building, it is one of his first appearances since Democrats changed the dress code standards for lawmakers.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., recently announced that the Senate would no longer enforce a dress code, allowing Fetterman, and any other senator, to show up to work in the outfit of their choosing.

Visitors and others entering the chamber are, however, not off of the hook, and must appear in the proper business attire.

The change was immediately blasted as ‘pathetic,’ with many lawmakers accusing Schumer of changing the rules solely for fellow Democrat Fetterman, who did not adhere to them for months.

‘The U.S. Senate just eliminated its dress code because you got this guy from Pennsylvania — who’s got a lot of problems… he wears, like, sweatshirts and hoodies and shorts… we need to be lifting up our standards in this country, not dumbing down,’ presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., said during a campaign event.

‘The Senate no longer enforcing a dress code for Senators to appease Fetterman is disgraceful,’ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted on X, formerly Twitter. ‘Dress code is one of society’s standards that set etiquette and respect for our institutions. Stop lowering the bar!’

Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady contributed to this report

Nevada’s pardons board will now consider requests for posthumous pardons in a limited scope, nearly six years after it voted to freeze such applications amid a backlog in cases.

The nine-member board voted unanimously Wednesday to begin accepting petitions for posthumous relief, but only those sponsored by a member of the board will be eligible for consideration.

The board consists of Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, Democratic state Attorney General Aaron Ford and the state’s Supreme Court justices.

Chief Justice Lidia Stiglich said Wednesday that she brought the matter before the board, in part, because of Tonja Brown, an advocate for prisoners who routinely speaks at meetings to bring attention to her late brother’s case.

‘At the very least,’ Stiglich said, Brown’s ‘tenacity deserves a discussion about whether or not we’re going to hear’ posthumous cases.

Brown believes her brother, Nolan Klein, was wrongly convicted in 1988 of a sexual assault and armed robbery outside of Reno and deserves a pardon.

‘He always maintained his innocence,’ she told The Associated Press after the meeting. Klein died in 2009.

Brown said she was grateful to the board and plans to submit an application on her brother’s behalf in the coming days.

In 2017, the board had voted it would not consider requests for posthumous pardons amid an ‘extreme backlog’ of applications for pardons and commutations, said Denise Davis, the board’s executive secretary. At the time, the board was required only to meet twice yearly, and only the governor had authority to bring a matter forward for consideration.

Nevada voters in 2020, however, passed a measure reforming the state’s pardons board. It now meets quarterly, and any member can place a matter before the board for consideration — including an application for posthumous pardons.

Davis said the board is still chipping away at the backlog, though it has improved.

Posthumous pardons are rare in Nevada — even before the board’s vote halting applications in 2017. Davis said she can’t recall the board granting a pardon posthumously since at least 2013, when she became executive secretary.

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It’s take two for Dave McCormick in battleground Pennsylvania.

McCormick, a former hedge fund executive, West Point graduate, Gulf War combat veteran and Treasury Department official in former President George W. Bush’s administration, on Thursday launched his second straight campaign for the Senate. 

His announcement gives national and state Republicans a high-profile candidate with the ability to self finance. McCormick had been courted to run against longtime Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. — a race that could ultimately decide whether the GOP wins back the Senate majority in 2024.

‘I have total faith and confidence in the people of Pennsylvania,’ McCormick said, but he stressed the need for leadership in Washington, D.C. ‘That is why today, I am announcing my candidacy for the United States Senate,’ McCormick said as he launched his Senate bid at Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh.

Asked why he was running again for the Senate, McCormick said in an interview with Fox News Digital that ‘the motivation is the same in the sense that I really feel that the country’s headed in the wrong direction.’

‘Whether it’s the immigration crisis or the economy or record high inflation, whether it’s the war on our domestic energy sector, I think the need to get great leaders into public life who can really make a difference and be independent and try to break the gridlock in Washington, which is failing us, is key,’ McCormick said.

And he took aim at Casey, tying the three-term Democratic senator and son of popular former Pennsylvania governor as well as President Biden, whose approval ratings remain well in negative territory.

‘Bob Casey is an 18-year senator. He’s been in politics 30 years and really hasn’t’ accomplished very much at all. He’s been a rubber-stamp for Joe Biden. He’s voted for Joe Biden 98% of the time,’ McCormick said. ‘If I can win this seat, I can really be a force for good in pushing back on Joe Biden’s policies.’

Casey, who served a decade as the state’s auditor general and then treasurer before winning election to the Senate in 2006, is not expected to face any serious primary challenge for the Democratic nomination.

McCormick may escape a crowded and combustible battle for the 2024 GOP Senate nomination similar to the one he faced last year. McCormick ended up losing the nomination by a race thin margin to celebrity doctor and cardiac surgeon Mehmet Oz, who secured a primary victory thanks to a late endorsement from former President Donald Trump. Oz ended up losing the general election last November to now-Democratic Sen. John Fetterman.

Asked about lessons learned from his first campaign, McCormick noted in his Fox News interview that he entered the race ‘a lot earlier this time.’

‘When you lose by 900 votes, there’s lots of lessons that you can learn. And so I’ve tried to learn all the things that came out of that last race and despite losing it was a great experience,’ he emphasized. ‘The most important thing is to get out there and be authentic.’

McCormick immediately won praise from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the campaign arm of the Senate GOP.

‘Dave McCormick has done a remarkable job of unifying the grassroots in Pennsylvania. A graduate of West Point, combat veteran and Pennsylvania job creator, Dave is exactly the type of candidate who can win both a primary and a general election in one of the most competitive states in the country. It’s great news that Dave is stepping up to serve our country once again.’ NRSC chair Steve Daines wrote in a statement shared with Fox News.

A race between Casey and McCormick could end up being one of the most expensive and closely watched Senate contests in the country next year, as the Democrats defend their fragile 51-49 majority.

Republicans need a net gain of either one or two seats in 2024 to win back the majority — depending on which party controls the White House after next year’s presidential election. 

The math and the map favor the GOP, as the Democrats are defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs, including three in red states and a handful in key general election battlegrounds such as Pennsylvania.

McCormick will likely once again come under attack — as both he and Oz did last year — over residency.

Oz was repeatedly criticized for relocating to Pennsylvania after living for decades in neighboring New Jersey. And McCormick, who grew up in northeast Pennsylvania and who’s the son of the Keystone state’s first state university system chancellor, was attacked for owning a home in an affluent part of Connecticut even buying a home in Pittsburgh ahead of his 2022 Senate campaign.

‘The real David McCormick is a mega-millionaire Connecticut hedge fund executive who is lying about living in Pennsylvania,’ the Pennsylvania Democrats charged in a release.

McCormick told Fox News that he is born and raised in Pennsylvania, lived most of his life there and ran a business in the state. ‘But like many Pennsylvanians, I’m divorced and remarried. My youngest daughter is finishing high school in Connecticut – she lives with her mom – and I’m going to go to Connecticut to see my daughter and to be a great dad,’ he said.

Attacks on his ties to Connecticut are a distraction, McCormick said.

Democrats are also blasting McCormick over the combustible issue of abortion.

Following the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade last year, abortion restrictions returned to individual states — making it a major election issue.

Republicans have played defense as Democrats point to polling that shows most Americans favor at least some form of abortion access.

‘Dave McCormick wants to ban abortions, even in cases of rape or incest,’ the Senate Majority PAC — the top super PAC backing Senate Democrats — said in a release hours before Thursday’s campaign launch.

But McCormick told Fox News that ‘my position hasn’t changed. I’m pro-life.’ And he reiterated that ‘any limits on this [abortion] should be for exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. That’s what I consistently said throughout the campaign [last year]. So that position hasn’t changed.’

Asked about a 15-week federal ban that some Republicans in Congress and some GOP presidential candidates support, McCormick answered ‘I don’t support a national abortion ban.’

‘This is also an issue where I think we have to show a lot of compassion and look for common ground. Certainly, we can — and most Pennsylvanians and most Americans agree we should contraception and we have reasonable limits on late-term abortion. And that is a compassion position and a consensus position. And that’s the position I support,’ he emphasized.

And he claimed that ‘Bob Casey can’t name one limit on abortion he would support, even at eight or nine months. So, Bob Casey and the Democrats are supporting late-term abortions… I think that’s how I’ll talk about this on the campaign trail.’

In last year’s primary, Trump repeatedly criticized McCormick as ‘liberal Wall Street Republican,’ as he campaigned for Oz.

But if Trump secures the GOP nomination, the former president and McCormick would both be at the top of the GOP ticket in Pennsylvania.

‘It’s publicly documented that we’ve had our disagreements,’ McCormick said of his relationship with Trump. ‘There’s no doubt about that. We have different styles.’

‘But there’s a lot of things I said in the last campaign that I say in this campaign about the polices of President Trump that I think were great for the country, great for America,’ he added. ‘The country’s going in a terrible direction since Biden has been in office and that’s the case that I’ll make and I think many of the things that President Trump was advocating and put in place were taking us in the right direction.’

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

President Biden committed his latest awkward gaffe Wednesday when it appeared he forgot to shake the hand of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as ‘Lula,’ before leaving the stage after a joint event.

The gaffe occurred following Biden’s speech on workers’ rights at the United Nations in New York City when he shook the hand of International Labor Organization Director-General Gilbert Houngbo, who was also on stage, and then stopped to wave and give a salute toward the audience before slowly turning and walking away.

Lula walked toward Biden as if to shake his hand, before realizing the president was beginning to walk in the other direction. He then turned and motioned his arm toward his side of the stage and walked away, appearing irritated.

The gaffe came on the same day as Biden was torched on social media for — according to a press pool report — telling the same story at a fundraiser twice just minutes apart, that users pointed out was ‘nearly word for word.’

‘After briefly touting his economic record, POTUS reflected on his decision to seek the presidency,’ the pool report from Politico’s Jonathan Lemire, who was traveling with the president on Wednesday, stated. ‘He told the story about the events of Charlottesville in 2017 as the reason for his campaign. A few minutes later, he told the story again, nearly word for word.’

Users promoted the pool report as evidence that the 80-year-old president’s age has become a factor in his presidency and campaign for re-election, a charge he has faced from both sides of the aisle since taking office.

An Associated Press-NORC poll last month found that 77% of Americans say Biden is too old for a second term. While an unsurprising 89% of Republicans expressed the sentiment, 69% of Democrats also say Biden is no longer up to the task, according to the poll.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.