>> President elect Joe Biden has chosen retired general Lloyd Austin as his
possible Secretary of Defense. This is his nominee for Secretary of Defense,
and we'll see if he gets confirmed by the Senate. It appears likely that this will happen.
Republican lawmakers have come out in support of general Lloyd Austin already so, that's a
little bit of a warning sign especially because since he retired from the military in 2016.
He's been working with defense contractors like Raytheon. So, Biden did publish a statement on
why he chose to work with Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defense. He said this,
in his more than 40 years in the United States Army. Austin
met every challenge with extraordinary skill and profound personal decency.
He's a true, and tested soldier and leader. I've spent countless hours with him in the field, and
in the White House Situation Room. I've sought his advice, seen his command, and admired his calm,
and his character. He is the definition of a patriot. He also says that,
the General Austin was the first African American general officer to lead the army corps in combat,
and the first African American to command an entire theater of war.
If confirmed, he will be the first African American to Helm the Defense Department. Another
milestone in the barrier- braking career dedicated to keeping the American people secure. And I
agree with having diversity, and representation within the cabinet. That is an important part of
this equation, but I also really do care about ethics, and I care about the I guess the career
path that these Cabinet picks have chosen, when they're not working for the government, right.
So in this case, he worked for a company that was later bought out
by Raytheon. But at the end of the day, he was working at Raytheon. And that worries me since
Raytheon is a major defense contractor, and they have Vested interest in either perpetuating war,
that we're already engaged in or maybe even engaging in new wars.
John, I wanted to give you an opportunity to jump
in and share your thoughts. >> My first thought is,
I let me ask a question, I guess maybe this is to you or maybe this is to the audience,
so let's say gets confirmed. Let's say that that's possible the cabinet nominees actually get
confirmed under this possibly republican senate, and serves, let's say let's say for four years,
what is this individual gonna do after serving as secretary of defense you had to guess?
I mean, yeah, maybe not really but >> We all know.
>> And so important follow up question then,
what would one have to do to get that job in four years? Would it involve A, a rocking the boat or
B, avoiding rocking the boat at all costs if you had to guess, and that is fundamentally the issue.
Like the biography that was given, and all the Joe Biden said, I bet all of that is
true. I bet this person's a true patriot, and will be a loyal steward and competent manager
of effectively the exact same foreign policy that we've had.
Hopefully the Obama foreign policy rather than the Trump foreign policy, at least visa v, the.
Increase of drone strikes, and things like that.
And so, the question when evaluating this person is, is that what you want?
Do you think that the big issue with American foreign policy over the past decade to two decades
is just that the leadership isn't competent enough, and it needs a good experienced manager?
Well, and if so, then this is a good person for you. If you think that the military needs to be
massively reformed and drawn down, something that by the way was being talked about under Rumsfeld
way back in the day. And then having someone who's a lifer, and is super tied in with a number of
these currently serving generals and admirals and all of that is probably not the best idea.
Let alone concerns over, lack of civilian control of the military,
which has typically been the case the Secretary of Defense, and let alone all of this stuff
having to do with the military contractors and the likely unwillingness he'll have to pull out
those conflicts. And the fact that it's probably a signal that that isn't a priority for Joe Biden,
if that's the person is choosing, as a lot of issues, and there were some good other
potential choices that Biden would, of course, never have considered for Secretary of Defense.
>> So I'm not even done sharing some of general Austin's history,
and some of the things that he did when he was actually in the military. So for instance,
when he was the head of Central Command, he did face some criticism for spending $500 million in
Syria. To train fighters, but only training a handful, how does that cost $500 million.
I mean, okay, red flag, also there were allegations that central command
downplayed terrorist threats to boost the image of the military.
But one other thing that I think is important to note is that,
you have to be fair in your analysis, and your critique of politicians across the board.
And so, if you are a Democrat who happens to engage in punditry,
you can't go after Donald Trump for doing something, and then give Joe Biden a pass.
And in this case, Austin has not been out of the military for the required seven years,
and would need a waiver from Congress to become secretary of Defence, and lawmakers have signalled
their wariness of granting yet another exception for retired general to lead the Pentagon.
Just four years after President Donald Trump sought one for his first defence Secretary,
Jim Mattis. There's a very real and important reason for why that rule exists.
And some lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren have committed to voting
against this cabinet pick, because of the fact that it would break the seven year rule.
>> Yeah, and look at it seems like maybe when it comes down to it that there might be a few
who will be consistent on that, we'll have to see we honestly at this point we don't
even know what the nomination process is gonna look like. It really does come down to those.
The George run offs and, if he does end up going the route of sort of acting heads that
don't have to go through that process, then that really fundamentally changes
our calculus of whether some of these individuals are gonna make it through.