- President-elect Joe Biden said on Monday that his transition team is facing continuing obstacles from President Trump’s political leadership at the Pentagon and the Office of Administration and Budget.
- “At the moment, we are simply not getting all the information we need from the outgoing government in the main areas of national security,” said Biden.
- Biden has repeatedly expressed concern last week about the lack of access he received at the Pentagon while the US dealt with the SolarWinds hack and amid tensions with Iran.
- The Pentagon countered the claim that officials are blocking Biden.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
President-elect Joe Biden accused President Donald Trump’s political appointees in the Department of Defense and the Office of Administration and Budget of “obstruction” and of refusing to provide important information to his presidential transition team during comments in Delaware on Monday. .
“We encountered obstacles in the political leadership of the Department of Defense and the Office of Administration and Budget,” said Biden during statements prepared after an interview with his national security advisers.
“At the moment, we are simply not getting all the information we need from the outgoing government in the main areas of national security,” he said. “It is nothing less than irresponsibility, in my view.”
The Pentagon and the Office of Management and Budget did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
“My team needs a clear picture of our strength’s stance around the world and our operations to stop our enemies,” said Biden. “We need full visibility of the budget planning underway in the defense department and other agencies, in order to avoid any window of confusion or catchup that our opponents may exploit.”
—The Recount (@therecount) December 28, 2020
This happened after Biden said last week that the Pentagon has refused to inform its national security team about several important issues, including the major Russian cyber attack against the U.S. government this year. And acting defense secretary Chris Miller ordered his department to cancel meetings with Biden’s transition team, Axios reported earlier this month.
In response to the discovery of the SolarWinds hack, Trump said last week that “everything is well under control“and that” Fake News Media “falsely blamed Russia for the attack. But Biden said last week that the government did not share important information about the attack with his team, and his transition team says the obstruction continues.
“The Department of Defense has continued to deny and delay meetings with members of our Agency Review Team. There has been no substantial progress since transition officials spoke of the Department’s political leadership intransigence earlier this month,” said one Biden’s transition officer to Insider on Monday after the president-elect’s statements.
“As the president-elect alluded, no department is more important to our national security than the Department of Defense, and the unwillingness to work together can have consequences far beyond January 20,” added the official.
The Defense Department dismissed the claim that officials are creating obstacles for Biden and his team, as the president-elect has repeatedly expressed concern that he has not been receiving comprehensive national security information in the past few days.
Biden argued on Monday that many federal agencies were “emptied” under Trump, apparently referring to the government’s failure to fill a wide range of positions across the government.
“The truth is that many of the agencies that are essential to our security have suffered enormous damage,” said Biden. “Many of them were consecrated in personnel, capacity and morals. Political processes have atrophied or been put aside ”.
—Biden-Harris Transition Presidential (@ Transition46) December 28, 2020
While Biden is pushing for more complete instructions and information from the Department of Defense, Trump has launched new threats to Iran.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have reached historic levels under the Trump administration, and Biden will have to deal with that as president, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic and continuing concerns about the SolarWinds hack.