Trump loyalists at the Pentagon hindered President Biden’s transition team, threatening national security, Politico reported on Wednesday.
The political website says members of the incoming administration were blocked from “gaining access to critical information” about U.S. military operations overseas, as well as the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
“The effort to obstruct the Biden team … 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” unnamed officials told Politico.
“Ultimately the level of information that we were given access to was inadequate, I mean just grossly inadequate, particularly in the context of a historically unprecedented set of challenges that the nation is facing,” one transition source said.
“It’s really quite shocking,” the person said.
Last month, Biden criticized the Trumpists’ obstructionism as “nothing short, in my view of irresponsibility,” adding that his team “needs a clear picture of our force posture around the world and our operations to deter our enemies.”
But the criticism was ignored.
People involved with the transition on both sides “gave Politico a more detailed picture of what was denied, saying briefings on pressing defense matters never happened, were delayed to the last minute, or were controlled by overbearing minders from the Trump administration’s side.”
The website quotes Mackenzie Eaglen, “a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute,” as saying that national defense “has traditionally been a bipartisan business between and among professionals,” calling the Trumpists’ reluctance to cooperate “terrible optics” for future transitions.
Tensions between the Pentagon and Biden officials emerged “almost the moment” the transition began in late November.
“While the military side … the Joint Staff and the geographic combatant commanders” were relatively cooperative, Politico says “the civilian side set up roadblocks at every turn.”
Some Trump critics call it “sedition.”
Leaders of the Biden transition said the outgoing Trump team’s conduct “went far beyond the norm and pointed to loyalists installed by the White House as the main reason for the obstruction,” the website says.
The Defense Department also did not cooperate with Biden’s people on Operation Warp Speed, Trump’s ineffectual program to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, said a Biden transition official.
And even when DoD officials — both civilian and military — did meet with the transition team, “they were often tight-lipped, as if they were given explicit guidance about what they could and could not talk about.”
A military commander said that when the Biden team “asked detailed questions about pressing national security measures,” they got “very vanilla answers,” following strict instructions from Trump appointees,” Politico says.
