Biden Reportedly Plans to Appoint Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defense

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President-elect Joe Biden reportedly plans to name retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to be his Secretary of Defense

According to Politico, Biden decided to pick Austin as his Pentagon chief in recent days, after experiencing increasing public pressure to ensure diversity among the remaining high-profile cabinet picks. Previously, Michele Fluornoy, who had served in the Defense Departments under Clinton and Obama, had been seen as having the inside track to the job.

“In recent days, Austin, the former commander of U.S. Central Command, had emerged as a top-tier candidate, although Biden also considered former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson for the job,” Politico reports. “The retired general is believed to be a good soldier who would carry out the president-elect’s agenda.”

Austin would be just the third former military officer to serve as Defense Secretary, after retired Gen. George Marshall and Trump’s first Pentagon chief, retired Gen. James Mattis. However, the Biden team would have to request a waiver for Austin to serve, since per U.S. Code, commissioned officers cannot serve as Secretary of Defense unless he or she has been out of the active service for seven years. Austin retired in 2016, after which he joined the board of the defense contractor Raytheon Technologies.