U.S. President-elect Joe Biden looks at the clock as he arrives to announce former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg as nominated for Secretary of Transportation during a press conference at Biden Transition Headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, USA, on December 16, 2020.
Kevin Lemarque | Reuters
WASHINGTON – Tensions between President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team and nominated politicians at the Pentagon erupted on Friday due to abrupt decision by Defense Secretary Christopher Miller to cancel meetings of the Pentagon transition with Pentagon officials the rest of the year.
In a statement Friday, Miller said Biden’s transition and the Department of Defense would take a “mutually agreed vacation break” and restart meetings and briefings in the new year.
But a spokesman for Biden’s transition team said such a mutual agreement never existed.
“Make it clear: there was no agreed mutual rest,” transition spokeswoman Yohannes Abraham said Friday afternoon. “In fact, we believe it’s important that briefings and other commitments continue during this period, as there’s no time to save.”
The abrupt suspension of meetings surprised Defense Department officials, according to Axios, who first reported news of Miller’s decision.
A Department of Defense spokesman did not respond to a request for CNBC comment on the conflicting accounts of Miller and Biden transition officials.
But Abraham left little doubt about Biden’s team’s frustration with top Pentagon officials, who believe they had so far refused to fully cooperate with the transition. “There have been many agencies and departments that have facilitated the exchange of information and meetings over the past few weeks,” Abraham said. “But there have been bags of recalcitrance, and DoD is one of them.”
Miller, however, insisted that at no time had the Pentagon “canceled or declined any interviews” with Biden transition officials. He said the department “will continue to provide all necessary support to the agency’s review team to keep our nation and its citizens safe.”
Biden’s team said they expected the Department of Defense to reverse its decision. “As for when meetings, meetings, and requests for information, which are substantially interchangeable, will be resumed, we expect and expect this to happen immediately,” Abraham said.
Miller was scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon, the only event publicly announced on Trump’s schedule for the day.
Miller was named Secretary of Defense on Nov. 9, after Trump abruptly fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.