Former homeland security sec. says he won't join Biden cabinet
Former US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says he will not join the Biden administration.
“I will not be in the Biden administration,” Johnson said in an email to Reuters on Wednesday.
Asked about the reason, he referred to “the news over the last 24 hours.”
Johnson, who was considered as a likely option for leading the Secretary of Defense in the incoming administration, served as DHS secretary in the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017.
Johnson's measures during his tenure, including his push to expand the detention of migrant families or his approval of hundreds of drone strikes in other countries, are still under question.
Meanwhile, the US president-elect Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that he intends to nominate retired Gen. Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defense, an option that, if confirmed, would be the first Black Defense Secretary.
Austin would require Senate confirmation to take up the post. He would also require a special waiver from the Senate due to federal law that requires military officers to wait seven years after retirement before serving as the Pentagon chief.
The waiver has happened twice -- most recently for General Jim Mattis in 2017, President Donald Trump's first defense secretary.
But, members of the Senate agreed begrudgingly, and several said at the time that they wouldn't want to do it again.
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