The United States Senate has confirmed Lloyd Austin as the new Secretary of Defense to become the first black citizen who holds one of the highest responsibilities in the field of national security in the country.
Austin’s nomination was approved by 93 votes in favor to just two against despite the reluctance of some senators, both Democrats and Republicans, about the confirmation of another recently retired general to lead the Pentagon.
It should be remembered that Austin, who retired from the Army in 2016, did not meet the relevant seven years out of service to run for office until the two houses of the US Congress voted this Thursday a new exemption for the beneficiary, the second general. four-star rating that receives it in four years after former President Donald Trump’s first Pentagon chief, retired Navy General Jim Mattis.
Austin, a former commander of US forces in the Middle East, will spend his first days in office overseeing the recent lifting of the restriction on transgender service that former President Donald Trump enacted at the time, as well as managing military aid to the vaccination campaign against the coronavirus.
During his testimony prior to confirmation, the retired military man expressed his desire to diversify the Armed Forces and eradicate the extremist bias in some of its members, in particular after the assault on the Capitol led by Trump supporters, many of them dressed in military uniform and even ex-combatants.
“The job of the Department of Defense is to keep America safe from our enemies,” Austin testified Tuesday. “But we can’t do that if some of those enemies are within our own ranks,” he settled.
