Biden Endorses Female Generals Whose Promotions Were Delayed Over Fears of Trump’s Reaction

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Biden Endorses Female Generals Whose Promotions Were Delayed Over Fears of Trump’s Reaction The unusual strategy to slow the promotions until after the election — intended to protect the officers’ accomplished careers — was devised by top Pentagon leaders.​ Eric Schmitt and Helene Cooper March 7, 2021, 11:45 a.m. ET WASHINGTON — President Biden has nominated two female generals to elite, four-star commands, the Defense Department announced, months after their Pentagon bosses had agreed on their promotions but held them back out of fears that President Donald J. Trump would reject the officers because they were women. The nominations of Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost of the Air Force to head the Transportation Command, which oversees the military’s sprawling global transportation network, and of Lt. Gen. Laura J. Richardson of the Army to head the Southern Command, which oversees military activities in Latin America, now advance to the Senate, where they are expected to be approved. The unusual strategy to delay the officers’ promotions — intended to protect their accomplished careers — was devised last fall by Mark T. Esper, the defense secretary at the time, and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They both thought the two generals were exceptional officers deserving of the commands. But under Mr. Trump, they worried that any candidates other than white men for jobs mostly held by white men might run into resistance once their nominations reached the White House. Mr. Esper and General Milley feared that if they even broached the women’s names, Mr. Trump and some of his top aides would replace them with their own candidates before leaving office. So the Pentagon officials delayed their recommendations until after the election in November, betting that if Joseph R. Biden Jr. won, then he and his aides would be more supportive of the picks than Mr. Trump, who had feuded with Mr. Esper and General Milley and had a history of disparaging women. They stuck to the plan even after Mr. Trump fired Mr. Esper six days after the election. “They were chosen because they were the best officers for the jobs, and I didn’t want their promotions derailed because someone in the Trump White House saw that I recommended them or thought D.O.D. was playing politics,” Mr. Esper, referring to the Department of Defense, said in an interview with The New York Times, which first reported the strategy last month. “This was not the case,” Mr. Esper added. “They were the best qualified. We were doing the right thing.” The strategy paid off on Saturday, when the Pentagon announced in separate afternoon statements and in Twitter messages from its press secretary, John F. Kirby, that Mr. Biden had endorsed the generals’ promotions and that the White House was formally submitting them to the Senate for approval. The disclosure last month that the Pentagon senior leadership had held back the nominations to protect the careers of the two officers from Mr. Trump prompted a lively debate in military journals and on social media. Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, who left the military last summer after his own entanglement with the White House, argued in the national security blog Lawfare that Mr. Esper and General Milley should have fought it out with Mr. Trump. “Upholding good order and discipline within the military does not mean dodging difficult debates with the commander in chief,” Colonel Vindman wrote. But defenders of Mr. Esper and General Milley’s strategy say that Colonel Vindman’s argument ignores the civil-military crisis between Mr. Trump and the senior Pentagon leaders in the fall. Mr. Trump, furious that they had stood up to him when he wanted to use active-duty troops to battle Black Lives Matter protesters, was openly disparaging of Mr. Esper to his aides and to the public. Mr. Trump was also countermanding the Pentagon at seemingly every turn, especially on social issues. When General Milley and senior Army officials sought to set up a commission to look into renaming bases that were named after Confederate generals, Mr. Trump took to Twitter, vowing that “my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations.” Lloyd J. Austin III, the new defense secretary, declined last month to comment on the lengths to which Mr. Esper and General Milley went to ensure that General Van Ovost and General Richardson received their command assignments. “I would just say that I’ve seen the records of both of these women,” he said. “They are outstanding.”