So is the potato (or his team) allowed in the Pentagon yet?
Has Biden Replaced President Trump's Pentagon Advisory Council Below, I Have Looked Everywhere And Found No Actions Taken By Biden?
THE HILL
Gingrich, other Trump loyalists named to Pentagon advisory panel
December 14, 2020 - 03:32 PM EST
The Pentagon on Monday named eight new members to its Defense Policy Board, including former House Speaker
Newt Gingrich, weeks after a purge of the independent advisory group.
The intended appointments to the board, which advises Pentagon leaders on policy issues, come after last month’s sudden removal of nearly a dozen longstanding experts on the panel, including former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright and former House Majority Leader
Eric Cantor (R).
The administration made similar replacements on the Defense Business Board in early December.
Among the most controversial names added to the board are Gingrich, a loyalist to
President Trump, as well as Scott O’Grady, Trump’s nominee for assistant secretary of Defense for international security affairs. Originally known for his career as a fighter pilot, O’Grady has recently sparred with critics on Twitter where he has also retweeted debunked conspiracies that called Trump’s election loss to
Joe Biden a “coup” attempt, according to CNN.
The other appointees are former U.S. ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization Thomas Carter, Edward Luttwak, Thomas Stewart, former Rep.
Randy Forbes (R-Va.), former Sen. Robert Smith (R-N.H.), and former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Charles Glazer.
The Pentagon last week also announced the intended appointments of Michael Pillsbury, a China expert at the Hudson Institute, to serve as the board’s chair, and former National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty as a member.
The Biden administration can still replace Trump’s picks come Jan. 20, so it is not clear if the newly named individuals will become members of the Defense Policy Board.
Politico
‘Really quite shocking’: Inside the ugly transition at the Pentagon
By
LARA SELIGMAN and
BRYAN BENDER
01/20/2021 01:00 PM EST
The effort to obstruct the Biden team is unprecedented in modern presidential transitions and will hobble the new administration on key national security matters.
Tensions between the Pentagon and the Biden agency landing team emerged almost the moment the General Services Administration authorized the transition to begin.
The Pentagon blocked members of President Joe Biden’s incoming administration from gaining access to critical information about current operations, including the troop drawdown in Afghanistan, upcoming special operations missions in Africa and the Covid-19 vaccine distribution program, according to new details provided by transition and defense officials.
The effort to obstruct the Biden team, led by senior White House appointees at the Pentagon, is unprecedented in modern presidential transitions and will hobble the new administration on key national security matters as it takes over positions in the Defense Department on Wednesday, the officials said.
Biden openly decried the treatment his aides were receiving at the Pentagon in December, calling it “nothing short, in my view, of irresponsibility” after meetings were canceled ahead of Christmas. He said his people were denied information on the SolarWinds hack, and said his team “needs a clear picture of our force posture around the world and our operations to deter our enemies.”