Biden wants retired general to serve as Pentagon chief

Presidentelect Joe Biden on Tuesday made his case for retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to be secretary of defense, urging Congress to waive a legal prohibition against a recently serving military officer running the Pentagon.

With concern rising in Congress about maintaining civilian control of the military, Biden suggested he felt a need to counter an emerging narrative that Austin’s nomination blurs the lines between civil and military roles.

“Given the immense and urgent threats and challenges our nation faces, he should be confirmed swiftly,” Biden wrote in The Atlantic. It was his first public confirmation that Austin is his pick for Pentagon chief, although word had leaked out Monday, prompting criticism and skepticism from some in Congress.

Biden countered the concerns by arguing that Austin knows that a Pentagon chief’s duties are different from those of a military officer. He said Austin is aware that “the civil-military dynamic has been under great stress these past four years,” an allusion to President Donald Trump’s hiring of numerous retired generals for key posts early in his administration, including retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis as defense secretary.

Biden argued that Austin would work to put the civil-military balance

“back on track.” He said the main reason he picked Austin was because he reacts well under pressure.

In other news, Biden made two key domestic policy picks Tuesday, selecting Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration, according to five people familiar with the decisions.

Fudge was just elected to a seventh term representing a majority Black district that includes parts of Cleveland and Akron. Vilsack spent eight years as head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Obama administration and served two terms as Iowa governor.