Biden's choice for secretary of Defense still in flux - POLITICO

The think tank Michèle Flournoy co-founded, the Center for a New American Security, relies heavily on funding from defense contractors.

President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team unveiled his picks for top national security positions on Monday.

Biden-watchers and national security veterans saw the omission as a sign that Michèle Flournoy, the woman who has been rumored for months to be a shoo-in for Biden’s Pentagon chief, might not have a lock on the job after all.

While Flournoy is still a strong contender, six people close to the transition say Biden is not entirely sold on the woman who was widely seen as Hillary Clinton’s pick for Defense secretary if she had won the presidency in 2016.

Two former Obama White House officials who remain close to Biden said he never developed the kind of strong personal relationship with Flournoy that he has sought in his Cabinet picks, and once the dust settled after the election, Biden began leaning toward exploring other options.

Another top contender is Jeh Johnson, Obama’s second secretary of Homeland Security, the people said.

“Michèle is still at the top of the list but they still want to keep looking — and that’s a change,” said a former senior national security official tracking the transition closely.

Some members of the Biden team are concerned Flournoy, who served as Obama’s Pentagon policy chief, is too entrenched to enact progressive change.

And are you unable to enact the kind of progressive change Biden is looking for?” said the former national security official who is tracking the transition closely.

A former government official who is in close contact with the Biden transition team said Johnson, who also served as general counsel at the Defense Department in Obama’s first term, has been under consideration in recent weeks for three jobs: attorney general, director of national intelligence and Defense secretary.

The former officials also pointed out that while Flournoy remains a strong candidate, she has had some policy differences with Biden, particularly over U.S

“She was aligned with McChrystal and others’ take that we need more forces and Biden was not in favor of that specific approach,” said the former government official who is close to the transition