President-elect Joseph R. Biden said Monday that the Defense Department’s apparent lack of cooperation during his transition into office is irresponsible and is hamstringing his team’s ability to get up to speed on threats to the U.S.
Mr. Biden said his people are getting cooperation from some agencies but that they’re encountering roadblocks from the Defense Department and the White House budget office.
“Right now, we just aren’t getting all the information that we need from the outgoing administration in key national security areas,” Mr. Biden said in a speech in Wilmington, Delaware. “It’s nothing short, in my view, of irresponsibility.”
Mr. Biden spoke after huddling with top members of his incoming foreign policy and national security teams.
Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said in a statement later on Monday that DoD has already gone above and beyond what other recent administrations have done.
“Our DoD political and career officials have been working with the utmost professionalism to support transition activities in a compressed time schedule and they will continue to do so in a transparent and collegial manner that upholds the finest traditions of the Department,” Mr. Miller said.The Pentagon had previously said the idea that DoD is refusing to brief Mr. Biden’s team is “patently false.”
Mr. Biden’s transition team said this month that they hadn’t agreed to a holiday break to meetings with the current Defense Department team, as Pentagon officials had said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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