US Senate confirms 1st black Pentagon chief
WASHINGTON (AP) – Lloyd J. Austin, a West Point graduate who rose to the Army’s elite ranks and marched through racial barriers in a 41-year career, won Senate confirmation last Friday to become the nation’s first black secretary of defense.
The 93-2 vote gave US President Joe Biden his second Cabinet member; Avril Haines was confirmed last Wednesday as the first woman to serve as director of national intelligence.
The only senators who voted against Austin were Republicans Mike Lee of Utah and Josh Hawley of Missouri.
Biden is expected to win approval for others on his national security team in coming days, including Antony Blinken as secretary of state.
Biden is looking for Austin to restore stability atop the Pentagon, which went through two Senateconfirmed secretaries of defense and four who held the post on an interim basis during the Trump administration.
Before heading to the Pentagon, Austin wrote on Twitter that he is especially proud to be the first black secretary of defense. “Let’s get to work,” he wrote. A short time later he arrived at the Pentagon’s River Entrance, where he was greeted by holdover Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist, who has been the acting secretary since Wednesday, and Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Austin was sworn in and was to receive an intelligence briefing, then confer with senior civilian and military officials on the COVID-19 crisis. He also planned to speak by phone with North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and to receive briefings about China and the Middle East.