Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that, in his more than three years of working with Vice President Kamala Harris, she has been with him and the president for some of their toughest decisions and “always a part of the process.”
The assessment, which Austin offered in response to a question about the vice president from reporters during a Pentagon press conference, comes just days after President Joe Biden’s surprise decision not to seek reelection in November and Harris being on track to take over for him at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Austin, a retired four-star Army general and now a civilian Cabinet member and Biden appointee, painted Harris as prepared and always engaged on national security issues. He said at the start of his remarks that he was not making “any kind of political commentary” but rather relaying what he witnessed as defense secretary.
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If reporters look at what the Biden administration has tackled “over the past three and a half years — strikes that we’ve had to take, the deployments that we’ve done, the decision to support Ukraine … there’s just thing after thing after thing,” Austin said.
“She’s always there, she’s always a part of the process, and she’s always very engaged,” he added.
In her brief time as the likely presidential nominee, Harris has already started to receive scrutiny…
