Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, once viewed as a long-shot candidate to be President-elect Joe Biden’s defense secretary, has been chosen to lead the Pentagon, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.
The decision comes two weeks after Biden announced the other senior members of his national security team. Although Michèle Flournoy, who was widely seen as Hillary Clinton’s choice to be defense secretary had she won the election in 2016, was initially viewed as the frontrunner for the job, Biden has been under growing pressure to nominate a Black person to be his defense secretary.
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, several people familiar with the discussions said.
Read more at Politico.
{Matzav.com}
