DEFENSE
‘We have encountered roadblocks’: Biden rips Pentagon
over transition foot-dragging
The president-elect said adversaries might look to
exploit a “window of confusion” during the change of administrations.
The president-elect has recently stepped up his
criticism of the Trump administration’s handling of the transfer of power.
By NICK
NIEDZWIADEK and LARA SELIGMAN
12/28/2020
05:03 PM EST
Updated:
12/28/2020 07:09 PM EST
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/28/biden-rips-dod-transition-foot-dragging-451505
President-elect
Joe Biden on Monday called out political appointees at the Defense Department,
saying they were putting up “roadblocks” and keeping his transition team at bay
with less than a month until he becomes commander in chief.
“Right now,
we just aren’t getting all the information that we need from the outgoing
administration in key national security areas,” Biden said in Delaware after a
briefing with members of his national security team. “It’s nothing short, in my
view, of irresponsibility.”
Within
hours, acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller pushed back on Biden's claims,
noting in a statement that the Pentagon has conducted 164 interviews with over
400 officials and provided over 5,000 pages of documents to the transition.
"Our
DoD political and career officials have been working with the utmost professionalism
to support transition activities in a compressed time schedule and they will
continue to do so in a transparent and collegial manner that upholds the finest
traditions of the Department," Miller said.
Biden’s
comments reignited tensions with the Pentagon just over a week after defense
officials abruptly canceled a series of meetings with the transition that had
been scheduled for Dec. 18. Defense officials, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity, said the two sides had agreed on a two-week holiday pause and that
the meetings would resume in the new year, but the Biden transition executive
director, Yohannes Abraham, rebutted that claim.
But Biden
on Monday said what he sees as foot-dragging on the part of the Trump
administration is particularly galling in light of the recently disclosed
massive cyberattack that hit much of the federal government and other global
threats. Biden also said the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville, Tenn.,
underscored the importance of the issue.
“We need to
make sure that nothing is lost in the handoff between administrations,” the
president-elect said. “We need full visibility into the budget planning
underway at the Defense Department and other agencies in order to avoid any
window of confusion or catch-up that our adversaries may try to exploit.”
Biden
reiterated concerns that the Pentagon’s political leadership, made up of newly
installed Trump loyalists, is obstructing the normal transition process. In
particular, Biden said his team needed “full visibility” into the Pentagon’s
budget planning, noting that adversaries might look to exploit a “window of
confusion” during the change of administrations.
“We have encountered roadblocks from the political
leadership at the Department of Defense and the Office of Management and
Budget,” he said.
The
Pentagon has continued to “deny and delay” meetings with Biden’s agency review
team members, a transition official told POLITICO on Monday after the
president-elect’s remarks, noting that the two sides had made “no substantial
progress” since the issue first came to light.
"As
the President-elect alluded to, no Department is more pivotal to our national
security than the Department of Defense, and an unwillingness to work together
could have consequences well beyond January 20th," the official said.
Pentagon
spokesperson Sue Gough pushed back strongly, saying DOD has been
"completely transparent" with the transition team about the upcoming
budget, and has even provided top-line information about the fiscal 2022-2026
program. OMB has not yet authorized the department to release the full details
of the five-year program, she said.
The
department has three meetings with the Biden team scheduled so far this week:
two related to Covid-19, and one on cybersecurity, Miller said in the
statement.
But DOD has
not held a meeting with the transition team since Dec. 18, according to a
source familiar with the discussions. Of the three meetings on the books for
this week, one was added Monday and two others were approved on the evening of
Dec. 23. And the person said the Pentagon continues to delay other requested
meetings.
Biden on
Monday made a point to differentiate the chilly reception his team has received
from officials at the Pentagon, and to a lesser extent OMB, from other parts of
the federal government apparatus.
“For some
agencies, our teams received exemplary cooperation from the career staff in
those agencies,” Biden said. “From others — most notably the Department of
Defense — we encountered obstruction from the political leadership of that
department.”
The
president-elect has recently stepped up his criticism of the Trump
administration’s handling of the transfer of power, which has been complicated
by the outgoing president’s refusal to accept his electoral defeat to Biden and
his legally dubious attempts to stay in office by subverting the will of the
American electorate.
Some
administration officials, wary of repercussions from the president or his
loyalists, have been wary of seeming too eager to assist with the transfer of
power and have at times received contradictory messages from the White House
about preparing for the end stages of the current administration.
Biden also
seemed to try to manage expectations of what his administration would be able
to do from the get-go in unwinding policies initiated under Trump, including on
immigration and America’s role on the international stage.
“These are
hard issues, and the current administration has made them much harder by working
to erode our capacity,” Biden said. “It’s going to take time to rebuild that
capacity.”
He said the
U.S. would have to repair relationships with other countries that were strained
under Trump’s America First philosophy, but that doing so was necessary to
counter China’s growing political influence abroad.
“We’re
stronger and more effective when we’re flanked by nations that share our vision
of the future of our world,” Biden said. “That’s how we multiply the impact of
our efforts and make the efforts more sustainable.”
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