President-elect Joe Biden said Monday that his transition team has encountered “road barriers” and “obstruction” by Trump administration leaders at major agencies, hampering efforts by the incoming administration to prepare for the presidency.
But one of those agency heads, Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, pushed back Biden’s criticism, marking the last row between President Donald Trump’s Pentagon and President-elect.
“The truth is that many of the agencies that are crucial to our security have suffered enormous damage,” Biden said during remarks in Delaware after a briefing by review teams from his national and political security agencies. outdoor.
“Many of them have been empty, in terms of staff, capacity and morale. Political processes have atrophied or been marginalized,” he said.
Biden, who is scheduled to take office in less than a month, noted in his speech the Department of Defense and the Office of Management and Budgets.
“From some agencies, our team has received exemplary cooperation,” Biden said. “Others, most notably the Department of Defense, have encountered obstructions from the political leadership of that department.”
He later added: “We have encountered obstacles from the political direction of the Department of Defense and the Office of Management and Budgets. At this time, we simply do not receive all the information we need from the administration leaving in security. national areas “.
“In my opinion, it’s nothing irresponsible,” Biden said.
Last Monday, in a statement, Miller’s acting Chief of Defense, defended his agency’s coordination with Biden’s team.
“The Department of Defense has conducted 164 interviews with more than 400 officials and provided more than 5,000 pages of documents, far more than Biden’s transition team initially requested,” Miller’s statement said.
This statement includes a list with peaks of “transition facts,” noting that all interviews with the transition team, for the first time, are conducted in virtually every light of the coronavirus pandemic.
The agency’s efforts “already outweigh those of recent administrations with three weeks to go,” Miller said, “and we continue to schedule additional meetings for the rest of the transition and respond to all requests for information. which correspond to us “.
Defense Department officials, the statement added, “have been working with the utmost professionalism to support transition activities on a compressed schedule and will continue to do so in a transparent and collegial manner that maintains the best traditions of the The American people don’t expect anything less, and that’s what I’m still committed to. “
The Office of Management and Budgets did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CNBC.
Biden applauded his agencies ’review teams for doing“ exceptional work ”despite the pandemic and delays in receiving federal funding from the Trump General Services Administration. These obstacles arose as the president refused to grant Biden and as his campaign team and others continue their efforts to cancel the election.
An urgent concern, Biden said, is to ensure “that nothing is lost in the transfer between administrations.”
“We need full visibility into ongoing budget planning in the Department of Defense and other agencies to avoid any window of confusion or recovery that our opponents may try to exploit.”
While the president-elect’s statements were some of his most critical views on the Trump administration from the Wilmington lectern, they were not the first instance of Biden’s struggles with the Trump Department of Defense.
Tensions between the Pentagon team and the Biden team spread to public view earlier this month over a dispute over Miller’s decision to cancel meetings with the transition team for the rest. of the year.
Miller said in a statement that there was a “mutually agreed vacation break,” but a Biden spokesman denied that such an agreement was not made.
“Make it clear: there was no mutually agreed holiday,” transition spokeswoman Yohannes Abraham had told reporters.
It was weeks after the election that Defense officials confirmed that the transition process to the Pentagon had begun.
“Today’s first meeting was by videoconference. It was a good productive meeting where we set some of the ground rules,” Tom Muir, director of services at Washington headquarters, said during a Pentagon briefing on the 24th. of November.
“They are looking forward to participating in discussions here at the Pentagon,” Muir added, facilitating the transition process.
Muir said then that Biden’s team will have offices dedicated to the Pentagon and adequate access to intelligence.