Politico | Inside the ugly transition at the Pentagon: how Joe Biden’s team was denied critical info
- Transition officials decry roadblocks to their requests on pressing operations, such as Covid-19 vaccine distribution and the troop drawdown in Afghanistan
- The obstruction efforts, led by Trump appointees, will hobble the new administration on key national security matters, officials say
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Lara Seligman and Bryan Bender on politico.com on January 20, 2021.
The Pentagon blocked members of US 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 programme, according to new details provided by transition and defence 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 Defence Department on Wednesday, the officials said.
[Trump] hired all the wrong people. And he paid a price for it. There wasn’t much we could do
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 cancelled 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”.
But people involved with the transition, both on the Biden team and the Pentagon side, gave POLITICO a more detailed picture of what was denied, saying briefings on pressing defence matters never happened, were delayed to the last minute, or were controlled by overbearing minders from the Trump administration's side.
“Defence has traditionally been a bipartisan business between and among professionals, and this is terrible optics for those who want to copy this pettiness in the future,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. The effort to block the transition from key national security information is “useless, poor form, and horrible precedent”.
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Joe Biden takes oath of office to become 46th president of the United States
This story is based on conversations with 10 Pentagon and Biden officials involved in the transition, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.