Biden to nominate defense secretary, introduce health team to fight coronavirus
President-elect Joe Biden will nominate retired Army General Lloyd Austin to be his defense secretary as soon as Tuesday, a person familiar with the decision said, and will publicly introduce the health team to lead his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Austin, 67, a former head of U.S. Central Command who oversaw forces in the Middle East under President Barack Obama, will be the first Black American secretary of defense if the U.S. Senate confirms him.
He was a surprise pick over Michele Flournoy, a former top Defense Department official who was considered the leading contender and would have been the first woman defense secretary.
Biden, a Democrat, takes office on Jan. 20 after defeating Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election. Trump has made unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud and is running out of options in his unprecedented attempts to overturn the vote in several states.
Tuesday is "safe harbor" day here, a deadline set by a U.S. law from 1887 for states to certify the results of the election. On Dec. 14 Electoral College members meet to formally select the presidential nominee who won the popular vote in their home states.
Biden has promised the most diverse Cabinet in U.S. history, and he made a point in his victory speech last month of telling Black voters he would remember them.
He has already named many of his national security and economic leaders, and his health team will guide the response to the pandemic that has killed more than 283,000 Americans and led to millions losing jobs.
Effective vaccines would help the Biden administration turn its focus to healing the ailing U.S. economy. There was more positive news on Tuesday in the form of U.S. Food and Drug Administration documents showing that the regulator did not raise any new issues about Pfizer Inc’s vaccine safety or efficacy.
(c) Reuters
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