Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other senior military and civilian leaders during the visit. The president and vice president will comment on Department of Defense personnel and tour African Americans in the service corridor, according to the White House.
Austin is the first black defense secretary, and Harris is the first black vice president, as well as the first woman and the first in South Asia to take office.
Biden on Wednesday “will pay special tribute to the rich history of the black military,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki, noting that the trip coincides with Black History Month.
More than 40% of the forces on active duty are men and women of color, said Psaki. She said Biden would also thank the military for its role in protecting the nation. His visit comes at a time when the Pentagon is fighting racism and extremism in the armed forces, an issue that Austin prioritized.
Biden is expected to reaffirm his commitment to the U.S. Armed Forces, but does not offer concrete details about his views on foreign troop levels or a plan for withdrawal in Afghanistan, a senior government official told CNN. These items can be discussed during your meeting behind closed doors at the Pentagon, but you are not expected to make new announcements on these fronts.
Instead, the president will use his comments to offer a general reiteration of his support for the military, similar to what he did last week at the State Department with diplomats.
The trip to the Department of Defense will be the second visit by an agency in the Biden Office, after a trip to the State Department. Last week, he met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and made his first major foreign policy and national security comments as president.
Biden will also address some of the internal issues he has addressed, such as lifting the Trump administration’s ban on the majority of American transgender people serving and ordering a review of sexual violence in the armed forces. He must also address the Pentagon’s role in the distribution of vaccines, said the senior administration official.
The president was furious during the campaign when it was revealed that Trump had despised members of the army and wants to reaffirm the White House’s support for the men and women who serve in uniform, according to the official.
“As the first president in 40 years with a child who served in the army, he has a personal connection to the important role of the military’s work, the men and women who serve,” said Psaki during a briefing at the White House on Tuesday. . Biden’s deceased son, Beau Biden, was a veteran of the Iraq War. He died in 2015 of brain cancer at the age of 46.
He also instructed the Pentagon to combat sexual assault and to review the department’s various advisory boards and committees.
Austin described the coronavirus pandemic as the “biggest challenge for our country at the moment” and he meets at Covid every day, according to a senior defense official.
Earlier this week, the Senate confirmed Kathleen Hicks as deputy defense secretary. She is the first woman to play this role.
The deal, which was negotiated under the Trump administration and signed in February 2020, provides that the Taliban will reduce violence and cut ties with terrorist organizations, among other demands. If the conditions of the agreement were met, US forces would leave Afghanistan in May 2021. The US force’s level in Afghanistan dropped to 2,500 troops just days before Trump stepped down.
CNN Oren Liebermann, Jennifer Hansler and Michael Conte contributed to this report.