Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin was sworn in as secretary of Defense on Friday, becoming the first Black head of the Pentagon in U.S. history.After he was sworn in by Tom Muir, acting director of Washington Headquarters Services, Austin jumped into his duties with an intelligence briefing and meetings with Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, according to a Pentagon statement.
There was no doubt on this…..
The Pentagon and US Military will have a Biden admin leader in place by sundown? …..The vote was 93-2….Senator Hawley and Mike Lee were the 2 against….
The Senate voted on Friday to confirm President Joe Biden’s defense secretary pick retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, who will be the first African American to run the department.
Well?
The new Boss is about arrive in the building shortly….
Heads WILL roll….
Austin actually sworn in today…..
Pentagon spokesperson will again be ex-Rear Admiral John Kirby
Biden’s people have made sure to give Austin a good support team….
Defense Sec fires ALL the Advisory Board people for his Department….
Trump has installed all his buddies in a number of them….
The story by dumb reporters was Biden couldn’t do anything about this?
As Trump proved….
EVERYBODY in a executive branch job SERVES at the pleasure of the President….EVERYBODY…
Joe Biden IS moving to wrase as much of the Trump actions as he can…
Wherever he can…
The Defense Science Board, before Trump, was traditionally and proudly pretty bi-partisan in spirit: the kind of body where experts on the right like Kissinger would join those on the left like Anthony Lake in presenting n0n-partisan and objective analysis to Presidents, Defense Secretaries and Secretaries of State of both parties (or none).
Trump, notorious for his intolerance of unwelcome advice, and his political staff changed all that and stacked the Board with those who would generally agree with him.
But this is one place where CG’s hope of appointing Republicans absolutely makes sense. And given Joe Biden’s preference (like Obama’s and FDR’s) for hearing out all sides before choosing a policy, I would not be in the least surprised if he filled those Board seats with real experts (scientific, diplomatic and intelligence) from all factions in both parties and beyond.
Here’s a Politico piece on the Defense Advisory Board’s clean out….
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has removed members of the Pentagon’s advisory boards in a sweeping effort to oust a series of last-minute appointees by the Trump administration, according to defense officials and a memo obtained by POLITICO.
In the memo dated Saturday, Austin fired all members serving on 31 defense advisory boards effective Feb. 16, including the Defense Policy Board, the Defense Business Board, and the Defense Innovation Board. Austin directed the immediate suspension of operations for 42 panels in total, while the Pentagon completes a “zero-based review” of the department’s boards and commissions….
More…
Update…
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized on Sunday after suffering an “emergent bladder issue,” the Pentagon said, less than a month after he spent nearly two weeks in intensive care with complications from a surgery to treat prostate cancer….
More….