Biden reportedly picks retired Gen. Lloyd Austin for defense secretary


President-elect Joe Biden has selected retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to be his defense secretary, three people with knowledge of the matter told Politico on Monday.
Austin is a former commander of U.S. Central Command and was the first Black general to command an Army division in combat and first to oversee a theater of operations. He retired from the military in 2016 after 41 years, and became a board member of Raytheon Technologies and Nucor. Because he has not been out of the military for the required seven years, Austin would need to receive a waiver from Congress to serve as defense secretary.
People familiar with the matter told Politico other candidates included defense policy adviser Michèle Flournoy and former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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