News: Trump loyalist running Pentagon transition — Deal on spending levels — Is the Air Force playing politics in Georgia?

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Trump loyalist running Pentagon transition — Deal on spending levels — Is the Air Force playing politics in Georgia?

Nov 25, 2020

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With Connor O'Brien and Jacqueline Feldscher

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Quick Fix

— The Pentagon transition is proceeding, but the White House loyalist picked to oversee the handoff is raising eyebrows.

— A bipartisan spending deal is reached that would avoid a government shutdown on Dec. 11.

— The Air Force is accused of playing politics with an announcement that it is basing new planes in Georgia ahead of the Senate runoff.

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On the Hill

SPENDING DEAL CLINCHED: House and Senate appropriators have struck a deal on funding levels, paving the way for a $1.4 trillion full-year spending package to avert a government shutdown next month, POLITICO's Caitlin Emma reports.

"The agreement on the funding allocations, confirmed by a House Democratic aide, establishes overall totals for 12 appropriations measures that will be rolled into one massive omnibus bill that would boost federal budgets for the rest of the fiscal year," she writes.

'PLAYING POLITICS': House Armed Services Chair Adam Smith blasted the Air Force on Tuesday for announcing Air National Guard bases that will receive new C-130J transport planes, including in Georgia, ahead of a pair of Senate runoffs.

"The Air Force has traditionally avoided making basing announcements near an election so as not to be accused of playing politics with force structure decisions," Smith said in a statement. "In this instance, the timing and decision to include Savannah, GA in the announcement, when Georgia is focused on Senate runoff elections, raises questions about the Secretary's motives."

Georgia's two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, face January runoffs. Perdue, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, hailed the C-130J news in a press release on Tuesday, saying he is "making sure our women and men in uniform always have the tools they need."

"The Air Force did not need to make this decision now – plain and simple – and should delay moving forward with these basing actions until conference negotiations have concluded and the decision is not at risk of being politicized," Smith said.

The Air Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SUPPORT FOR SPECIAL OPS SHAKEUP: The top House lawmaker overseeing special operations forces, Rep. Jim Langevin, voiced support for acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller's move to elevate the top civilian overseeing special forces matters to be on par with civilian leaders of the military branches.

"I support efforts to strengthen civilian oversight of Special Operations Forces, who conduct some of our most secretive and sensitive missions," said Langevin, who sent Miller a letter Tuesday outlining his support, but also some concerns with the move.

"I will follow implementation closely to ensure the reorganization does not remove the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from the development and oversight of special operations policy," said Langevin, who chairs the Armed Services Emerging Threats panel.

Langevin also urged President-elect Joe Biden to quickly fill the post of assistant secretary for special operations and low-intensity conflict, which has been filled on an acting basis.

Coronavirus

WEAR A MASK: The Pentagon on Tuesday reiterated the urgency of taking all recommended precautions to help beat back the surge in coronavirus infections.

"We've seen a general uptick in Covid-19 positive cases as we head into the holiday season," chief spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman told reporters. "We wanted to take this opportunity to re-emphasize the importance of taking preventive measures to mitigate against the spread of coronavirus, particularly following CDC guidelines."

The military is also stepping up efforts to help nationwide. Dozens of Air Force critical care nurses reported for duty in North Dakota to help battle one of the worst surges, NBC reports.

Meanwhile, two GOP senators are urging the Pentagon to test all military personnel and their families for the virus to keep it at bay in the ranks, Stars and Stripes reports.

"We urge you to immediately make plans to utilize the latest rapid antigen tests for coronavirus to detect the asymptomatic carriers of coronavirus," Sens. Joni Ernst and Thom Tillis wrote.

And: Intelligence employees vent frustrations over being forced to return to the office, via Yahoo News.

TRACK THE TRANSITION: President-elect Biden has started to form a Cabinet and announce his senior White House staff. The appointments and staffing decisions made in the coming days send clear-cut signals about Biden's priorities. Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, it tracks the appointments, people, and the emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition and the first 100 days of the incoming Biden administration. Subscribe today.

White House

O'BRIEN FOR PRESIDENT? There's a lot of chatter about President Donald Trump running again in four years. But could he have some competition from right down the hall in the West Wing?

Robert O'Brien, his national security adviser, "is telling friends and colleagues he is considering a presidential bid in 2024, according to three people who have talked to him," POLITICO's Daniel Lippman reports. "It's a possibility that GOP strategists dismissed as an illogical long shot at best. But several of O'Brien's friends insisted that maybe, just maybe, O'Brien could click with the American people."

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Transition 2020

GETTING TO WORK: "Kash Patel, a White House loyalist who was installed at the Pentagon two weeks ago amid a purge of senior civilian officials, has been put in charge of the Defense Department's transition to the next administration, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday," our colleague Jacqueline Feldscher reports.

The news, first reported by CNN, comes one day after the General Services Administration allowed the Trump administration to begin talking with the incoming Biden team to begin the transition process.

Patel previously worked for Rep. Devin Nunes , the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, and as a staffer played a key role in helping Republicans discredit the Russia probe. He also worked on the National Security Council staff, for former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, and most recently as a top White House counterterrorism official.

Pentagon transition officials also held their first meeting with the Biden team on Tuesday via teleconference, Thomas Muir, the senior career executive for transition, said in a briefing.

Biden's transition team will have dedicated office space at the Pentagon that allows for social distancing, Muir said, but he expects the process to be a mix of virtual and in-person meetings. Muir said he will conduct a "small tour" of the building on Monday with some of Biden's transition team members.

The daily brief: Meanwhile, Trump on Tuesday granted Biden access to presidential intelligence briefings after stonewalling the information amid his resistance to the transition of power, POLITICO's Matthew Choi, Daniel Lippman and Nancy Cook report.

The President's Daily Brief, a summary of high-level national security intelligence, is routinely shared with the president-elect to prepare him for his move into the White House. But until Tuesday, Trump had refused to loop Biden into the briefs as he challenged the outcome of the election.

Officials are still working out the coordination, but the briefings for Biden are likely to start early next week.

Related: Biden weighs Mike Morell as his CIA chief. A key Dem senator says don't bother, via The Daily Beast.

And: Biden urges Senate to take up confirmation process for Cabinet picks, via POLITICO's Nick Niedzwiadek.

SECDEF SEARCH: We're told by several insiders there's still no final decision on who will be Biden's pick to be secretary of defense. But an announcement could come right after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Biden is holding his cards close to his chest. "We're going to do that. We're just doing a piece at a time here," he told reporters on Tuesday after introducing the national security and foreign policy picks he announced on Monday. But he declined to respond to a question about whether Michèle Flournoy, who has been at the top of everyone's list, is among the candidates.

She is still widely considered the frontrunner, despite some divergent views with the president-elect over Afghanistan and pressure from the left to disclose her ties with the defense industry and commit to more rigorous review of arms sales, among other concerns.

If she does become the first woman to run the Pentagon, she's also likely to bring with her a number of women, as NBC News laid out on Tuesday. Some with close ties to Flournoy, who is a former undersecretary of defense for policy, are already part of Biden's Pentagon agency review team.

"She has been a mentor to women in the national security space over the course of 20 some years or more," former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told NBC. "So there is a crop of women who are highly, highly qualified and would certainly be very eligible to go into a number of positions in the Pentagon."

Rosa Brooks, who worked for Flournoy at the Pentagon, also said she thinks the diversity overall will be a top priority for Flournoy. "I also think she's someone who is strongly committed to having a diverse team in every possible way: not just gender but race, religion, age, type of background experience," Brooks said.

One name that sticks out is Michelle Howard, the retired admiral and vice chief of naval operations who is on the transition team. She is reportedly on the short list for secretary of the Navy, which would make her the first woman and the first Black person to be the civilian leader of the service.

Some leading GOP senators on Tuesday slammed Biden's announced picks, including Tom Cotton, who accused them of a series of failures in the Obama years, and Marco Rubio, who called them "polite and & orderly caretakers of America's decline."

And: Can Biden make the military safe for those who serve? via Foreign Policy.

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