President Biden on Thursday reiterated his call for Sen. Tommy Tuberville to end his months-long hold on military nominations over Defense Department policies on abortion, claiming the Alabama senator is causing “a growing cascade of damage and destruction.”

Meanwhile, Tuberville said his tactic is within his rights as a senator, unlike the Defense policies, which he claims can only be implemented through Congress. He also fought back against Democratic accusations that the hold is impacting military readiness.

Biden, who has previously called out Tuberville’s block on more than 280 military nominations, made the comments during a speech Thursday night at the Truman Civil Rights Symposium at the National Archives in Washington.

“The Republican Party used to support the military, but today they’re undermining the military,” the president said. “The senior senator from Alabama, who claims to support our troops, is now blocking more than 300 military [nominations] with his extreme political agenda.”

Biden noted Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, his nominee to be the first Black chairman of the joint chiefs, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the second woman to achieve the rank of four-star admiral and his pick to lead the Navy, are among the nominations being held up by Tuberville.

“We need them,” the president said of his nominees. “Right now, tens of thousands of America’s sons and daughters are deployed around the world tonight, keeping us safe from immense national security challenges. But the senator from Alabama is not.”

Tuberville began the hold in February over Defense policies that expand abortion access, including reimbursing military members for travel to obtain an abortion if they are serving in an area where the procedure is illegal.

Because of the hold on nominations, Biden said, the Marine Corps. is without a commandant for the first time in more than a century.

“This partisan freeze is already harming military readiness, security and leadership and troop morale,” the president said.

The hold is also affecting soldiers’ families, Biden said, including military spouses who don’t know whether they can apply for a new job because they don’t know where their family will be based yet.

“Military families, who already sacrifice so much, [are] unsure of where or when they change stations, unable to get housing or start their kids in a new school because they’re not there yet,” he said.

“A growing cascade of damage and destruction all because one senator from Alabama and 48 Republicans who refuse to stand up to him, to lift the blockade over the pentagon policy offering servicemen and women and their families access to reproductive health care rights they deserve if their stationed in states that deny it,” Biden said. “I think its outrageous.”

Tuberville claimed the facts are on his side, pointing to testimony from a commander and a general who said the move is not affecting military operations.

Alabama’s senior senator also said the hold is not unprecedented, referencing Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s, D-Ill., pause on 1,200 military promotions:

Tuberville also said the hold doesn’t stop the Democratic-led Senate from moving forward on the nominations:

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., could invoke procedural moves to circumvent the hold, but Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., told the Associated Press that it would take at least 84 days to confirm all the nominees if the Senate worked eight hours a day or at least 27 days if the chamber toiled “around the clock.”