President Biden's pick to lead the Pentagon, retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, is vowing to pry open the flow of information about the Biden administration's military plans amid criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike that former President Donald Trump's Defense Department was too secretive.
Senators who questioned him at his Tuesday nomination hearing called on Austin, if confirmed, to be a more vocal secretary of defense than Trump's picks to lead the department. Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton and New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that is handling the nomination, were among the most forceful politicians in pressing Austin to let the public know more about the Pentagon's plans and operations. Such public disclosures had slowed to a drip under Trump, they said.
“Bob Gates routinely held on-camera press briefings about major decisions, new policies, public controversies, and so forth,” Cotton said, referring to the Pentagon boss during the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations. “Those have been almost nonexistent for the last four years.”
Austin told the panel that he intends to hold regular on-camera press briefings and appear on television programs, aiming to explain the administration's defense policies and any missions that the military is ordered to execute.
“I fully understand and appreciate the role that [the] secretary of defense has in communicating with the American public,” Austin said in response to Gillibrand’s questioning.
“You have my commitment that I will establish a good relationship with the media and provide them the access and the information required to do their job of reporting out to the American people,” he added.
Trump’s last acting defense secretary, Chris Miller, held just one press event in November and took no questions. Trump’s last permanent defense secretary, Mark Esper, last spoke from the Pentagon briefing room in July.
Trump’s own military man, retired Marine Corps Gen. Jim Mattis, who won a congressional waiver in 2017 to serve as Trump’s first defense secretary, also shied away from the camera and on-the-record statements. That was a departure from his career in uniform, when the Marine was widely viewed as media-savvy and eager to discuss military policy and operations.
The Heritage Foundation’s Tom Spoehr told the Washington Examiner in a recent interview that his former Iraq commander, Austin, was a powerful and respected leader behind the scenes.
“He's very effective behind closed doors,” he said. “He’s forceful. You don't push him around. He’s not going to fold like an umbrella.”
However, Austin is camera-shy.
“In public, when you want to get him, he's not given to big speeches and talking a lot and things like that,” Spoehr said. “He will be a good advocate for DoD.”
