Transition drama continues as Biden team pushes back on DOD

By Tony Bertuca / December 23, 2020 at 1:44 PM

President-elect Biden's transition team today continued to assert that the Pentagon is blocking its efforts to prepare for the change in administration.

"As the President-elect noted yesterday, the Department of Defense has continued to refuse to meet with our agency review team members," Biden spokesman Ned Price said today. "There has been no substantial progress since transition officials spoke to the intransigence of the department's political leadership late last week. As we said then, no department is more pivotal to our national security than the Department of Defense, and an unwillingness to work together could have consequences well beyond January 20."

In a press conference yesterday, Biden said he was troubled by DOD's recalcitrance, especially considering the continued COVID-19 crisis and a massive cyber intrusion.

"The Defense Department won't even brief us on many things," Biden said of the hack. "So, I know of nothing that suggests it's under control. This president hasn't even identified who's responsible yet."

While Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other senior administration officials have said the hack is the work of a Russian spy agency, Trump has suggested China could be responsible.

A senior defense official who declined to be named sent reporters an email this morning contradicting Biden's statement about transition cooperation, but the Pentagon has not provided an official statement.

Meanwhile, acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller said last week the Pentagon will cease briefing Biden transition officials until after Jan. 1 because both teams have agreed to a "holiday break."

But the Biden team says that it is untrue and that they did not agree to a pause.

"No, there was no mutually agreed upon holiday break," Biden spokesman Yohannes Abraham said last week. "In fact, we think it's important that briefings and other engagements continue during this period, as we have no time to spare and that's especially true in the aftermath of the ascertainment delay."

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