The White House settled on Tuesday at the Pentagon three allies of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and separated from office three civilians senior the Department of Defense.
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The three new appointments were made taking advantage of the departure of three senior Pentagon officials.
Yesterday Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper at a time when the president refuses to acknowledge his defeat in the elections against his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
The Department of Defense reported the resignation of Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, James Anderson; the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, Retired Vice Admiral Joseph Kernan; and the Chief of Staff of the Secretary of Defense, Jen Stewart.
Pentagon has confirmed the exits of Anderson (policy head), Kernan (intel head) and Stewart (Chief of Staff to SecDef).
Replacements: Anthony Tata, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, Kash Patel.
That's a pretty clean sweep there from traditional defense republicans to Trump loyalists
— Aaron Mehta (@AaronMehta) November 10, 2020
The position of Chief of Staff of the Secretary of Defense is the most important position reserved for civilians in the Pentagon because it is the one who sets the agenda of the Secretary of Defense.
For his part, the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security is the main civilian advisor on matters related to military intelligence.
The Acting Undersecretary of Defense for Policy is the head of this area at the Pentagon.
Anderson, tumultuous relationship with the White House
Anderson, Kernan and Stewart presented their resignation letters on Tuesday, although that of the second, he said, was something “planned for months.”
However, the Foreign Policy medium, which cited three sources familiar with these movements, specified that Anderson, who worked for the George W. Bush Administration (2001-2009), was fired after a “tumultuous” relationship with the White House.
James Anderson, who was confirmed as deputy undersecretary of defense for policy and was elevated to serve as an acting official in the top policy job, resigned on Tuesday after a tumultuous relationship with the White House.https://t.co/wADIhDeqXE
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) November 10, 2020
According to Foreign Policy, Anderson had rejected a number of Trump appointments as loyal to the White House.
In his resignation letter, Anderson indirectly mentioned the legal and ethical challenges that new appointments may face from Trump, who insists there was fraud in the election.
Now, as always, our long-term success depends on adhering to the US Constitution, which all public officials swear to uphold, ” Anderson recalled in an excerpt from the letter.
Aside from reporting changes in the civilian leadership, the Defense Department announced the new appointments.
The new Under Secretary of Defense for Policy will be retired Brigadier General Anthony Tata, who has served in this section of the Pentagon as a high-ranking official.
Tata is a Trump loyalist, a former Fox News contributor, and has supported conspiracy theories in the past.
He has been reappointed after he was rejected for the Senate seat last summer for his Islamophobic and conspiratorial comments.
Tata, Islamophobe in the Pentagon
Anthony Tata, general de una estrella retirado del ejército, se encargará de desempeñar las labores de subsecretario de políticas de defensa. James Anderson, quien había sido el subsecretario interino, renunció el martes https://t.co/i9zijM7LNV
— el Nuevo Herald (@elnuevoherald) November 11, 2020
In August, California senator and now vice president-elect, Democrat Kamala Harris, lamented Tata’s unfitness for the job.
“Anthony Tata cannot work at the Pentagon in any way,” Harris tweeted. His infamous Islamophobic comments disqualify him. point. Our soldiers deserve better from your leadership, ”he said.
For his part, Kernan will be replaced as Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security by Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who until now had served as Acting Deputy Secretary for Low-Intensity Conflicts.
The Atlantic magazine published in 2017 about him that the then-White House Chief of Homeland Security, Gen. HR McMaster, had been unable to fire Cohen-Watnick, then 31 years old and Senior Director of Intelligence programs, because Trump, at the request of his now-former adviser Steve Bannon and his son-in-law and also adviser, Jared Kushner, asked him to keep him.
The magazine noted that Cohen-Watnick, almost unknown before entering the Trump administration, had not been removed because of his unwavering loyalty to the president.
In Stewart’s case, she will be replaced as Defense Department chief of staff by Kash Patel, who has served on the staff of the White House National Security Council.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Patel is a fervent defender of the causes of the Trump administration.
Patel, seamlessly loyal to Trump
In the past, he was an aide to Republican California legislator Devin Nunes, former chairman of the Lower House Intelligence Committee, and played an essential role in hindering investigations into alleged Trump campaign contacts in the 2016 election with Russia, he said. the rotary.
The Wall Street Journal, which quotes an unidentified official, added that Patel played a “fundamental” role in the dismissal of Esper on Monday by Trump, considering that the already former Secretary of Defense was “unfair” in opposing the deployment of the military. in Washington DC during the June racial protests.
Esper was replaced by the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Chris Miller, as acting secretary of defense and who assumed the new responsibilities yesterday,
About Miller, The Washington Post newspaper noted on Monday that he has vast military experience, having served as an officer in the US Special Forces, known as “green berets,” in the past at the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan, in 2001, and in Iraq, in 2003.
Christopher Miller, Trump’s surprise acting defense secretary, has a thin resume for the job but deep experience in counterterrorism https://t.co/mWqLRcCN8p
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 10, 2020
In March 2008, he joined the Trump Administration as a special assistant to the president and later as director of counterterrorism and transnational threats on the National Security Council.
He had been the national director of the National Anti-Terrorism Center since August.