When President-elect Joe Biden formally introduced members of his national security team on Tuesday, there were significant gaps on stage: proposed leaders for the Pentagon and the CIA.
After Biden named another woman, Avril Haines, to be his Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday, attention turned to who will lead the Central Intelligence Agency. There’s no discussion of keeping the current director, Gina Haspel, who has had a fraught relationship with President Donald Trump and is expected to resign on Inauguration Day, if she isn’t fired before then. But one of Biden’s reported candidates to replace her has already been denounced as a «torture apologist.» Options A decision on the nominee for Secretary of Defense is expected to be made in early December and as soon as early next week, transition advisers say, with at least two other potential candidates still in contention besides Flournoy. Transition advisers say options presented to Biden include Jeh Johnson, the former secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama administration. Some former officials close to the selection process believe Johnson is also in contention for the position of Attorney General, underscoring the notion that the Biden team is still trying to fit various contenders into the Cabinet puzzle. Another name being floated to lead the defense department: Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and a decorated veteran who was wounded in combat. Two transition advisers cautioned against reading anything into the fact that Flournoy was not included in the national security team announced this week in Wilmington. But it was also not immediately clear why she was not on stage with the nominees for Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence and Homeland Security Secretary, given that she has been a well-known quantity, a leader in the defense field for years and has been widely seen as a leading candidate to lead Biden’s Pentagon.
