Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Miller
In response to complaints by the Biden team that the transition with the Defense Department was not smooth, the Defense Department issued a statement at midnight on Dec. 23, calling the Biden team’s allegations “patently false.
The Washington Times reported that senior Pentagon officials said in the statement that both teams had agreed to a leave of absence, so they would resume formal meetings with the Biden transition team in early January. The Biden team denied agreeing to a leave of absence.
On Friday, the Pentagon was shocked by media reports that Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller had suddenly ordered the Pentagon to suspend cooperation with the Biden team on the “transition handover.
The Defense Department later explained that some 20 meetings on Friday were indeed rescheduled because both sides agreed to take a Christmas break, and insisted that the Defense Department had been cooperating with the transition effort.
But the Biden team took the opposite view, with Yohannes Abraham, executive director of its transition team, telling the press, “Let me be clear on this: we did not agree (with the Trump team) on a furlough.
Abraham also told Reuters by phone, “Our concern is that there will be a sudden break in what is already a very limited cooperation.
On Tuesday Biden himself said the Defense Department would not even brief them on key issues, including the massive hacking of the federal government. Biden also said his team was not receiving cooperation from the Defense Department and that the extent to which its work was “compromised is unclear.
U.S. online media outlet Axios reported that a top Defense Department official had tried to downplay the abruptness of Miller’s move, claiming that it was simply delaying the last few scheduled meetings until after the New Year and that “we have less than 24 meetings left today and next week,” and that “the number of meetings is overwhelming the Defense Department staff.
Trump cleans up the Defense Department in 1 month
Since the election, Trump has made three major moves in one month to clean up the Defense Department.
The first was to fire Defense Secretary Esper and a group of generals, and appoint Miller, who has a background in counterterrorism, as acting defense secretary, who soon after taking office asked special forces to bypass bureaucratic channels and report directly to him.
The second was the removal of 12 Defense Policy Board advisors, including the pro-Communist Kissinger.
The third was the firing of nine Pentagon Defense Affairs Committee staffers and replacing them with nine other cronies, including Trump’s political allies Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie.
Lewandowski, a Trump appointee, was Trump’s first campaign manager in 2016 and a senior adviser to this year’s campaign, and is currently traveling to various states to promote Trump’s litigation process over the election results.
Bossie, a longtime conservative operative guarding Trump, served as Trump’s deputy campaign manager in 2016 and was recently appointed by Trump to lead the campaign as interim manager. Mills, on the other hand, is a conservative veteran who, on Twitter, calls himself a Newsmax News insider.
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