WILMINGTON, Delaware--President-elect Joe Biden said it was the "right moment" in U.S. history for his nominee for defense secretary, retired Army General Lloyd Austin, despite concerns about the recently out-of-uniform soldier taking on a role reserved by law for civilians.
The choice of Austin, who if confirmed would be the first Black U.S. secretary of defense, requires both houses of Congress to waive a law requiring the military's top brass to have been out of the armed forces for at least seven years before running the Pentagon. Austin, 67, retired in 2016.
In announcing his pick in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden called Austin "the right person for this job at the right moment.”
"I would not be asking for this exception if I did not believe this moment in our history didn’t call for it - does call for it - and if I didn’t have the faith I have in Lloyd Austin," the Democrat said.
Biden has pledged to name a Cabinet that reflects America's diversity and his nominees so far have included several firsts, including Janet Yellen, who would be the nation's first woman Treasury secretary, and Alejandro Mayorkas, who would be the first immigrant to run the Department of Homeland Security.
A handful of Democratic senators say they would oppose giving Austin the waiver, which was last issued for President Donald Trump's first defense secretary, retired Marine General Jim Mattis. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand told reporters on Wednesday she looked forward to meeting Austin but that the required waiver was a big concern. "My view is that civilian control of the military is part of our constitutional principles," she said.
The Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith, said while he also had concerns, he did not reject Biden's choice. Austin should meet with members of the House committee "so they can ask questions about civilian control of the military, and ... be assured that General Austin is committed to this important principle,” Smith said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Austin said in Wilmington on Wednesday: “I come to this new role as a civilian leader – with military experience to be sure – but also with a deep appreciation and reverence for the prevailing wisdom of civilian control of our military.”
An intensely private man, Austin avoided the spotlight during a distinguished four-decade career in uniform, including a stint as head of the military's Central Command, which oversees U.S. troops across the Middle East. His nomination follows a year of reckoning in the United States over systemic racism and injustice after a series of police killings of Black Americans, and as many call for greater diversity in the leadership of the armed forces, whose top tier has been largely white.
