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.

Actually, this does not surprise in the least. tRump, an accomplished misogynist as well as a sexual predator who had over 20 women credibly accuse him of sexual misconduct, really ought to be cooling his heels in a federal penitentiary. That combined with his sedition and incitement to riot ought to have landed him in a federal penitentiary at some point. But who ever said justice was guaranteed? It isn't.

Anyhoo, I'm veering a bit away from the main point of the article so without further ado...

Credit...Yuri Gripas for The New York Times

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.”

Promotions for the military’s top generals and admirals are decided months before they take over their new positions. So the delay in formally submitting the two officers’ promotions should not affect when they start their new jobs, most likely this summer, Pentagon and congressional officials said.

General Van Ovost is a four-star officer, leading the Air Force’s Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. Of the 43 four-star generals and admirals in the United States military, she is the only woman.

General Richardson is the three-star commander of the Army component of the Pentagon’s Northern Command, based in San Antonio, which is playing an important role in providing military assistance to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s coronavirus vaccination program.

It is so heartening to have a true patriot and an intelligent person sitting in the Oval Office. One with a clear head and whose only agenda is to work towards a more perfect democratized union and everything that implies.

After suffering through having a doddering fool who was arguably suffering from dementia and delusions having a stable, intelligent, rational, empathetic, understanding, and decisive Commander in Chief is without a doubt one very HUGE improvement!