December 7, 2020

Biden Set to Name Non-Democrat Non-Civilian as Secretary of Defense

General Lloyd Austin in 2016, shortly before his retirement from the Army.Tampa Bay Times via ZUMA

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Oh man, I hate this so much:

I have literally never heard of Lloyd Austin before now, so obviously I have nothing personal against him. But there are two problems here. First, civilians should ultimately control the Pentagon. Trump broke this tradition with James Mattis and Biden should have firmly reestablished it. Second, a Democratic president should appoint Democrats to lead the Defense Department. Not Bill Cohen. Not Robert Gates. Not Chuck Hagel. And not Lloyd Austin. Democrats need to stop feeding the longtime Republican insinuation that people can’t trust the Mommy Party to run our wars.

This is not the biggest thing in the world. It’s just a longtime pet peeve of mine. If Democrats won’t stand up for civilian Democrats to run the Pentagon, who will?

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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