Trump's Pick for Defense Secretary Is as Swampy as You'd Expect

[babylonsister]

July 17, 2019 10:40AM ET
Trump’s Pick for Defense Secretary Is as Swampy as You’d Expect
“This smacks of corruption, plain and simple,” said Elizabeth Warren while grilling potential Pentagon chief Mark Esper over his ties to defense contractor Raytheon
By Ryan Bort


It’s been seven months since a Senate-confirmed secretary of defense has presided over the Pentagon. This isn’t likely to be the case for much longer, as the Republican-controlled Senate is expected confirm Mark Esper to the position soon, possibly by the end of the week. President Trump’s Cabinet is already rife with corruption, stocked full of former lobbyists and other private industry power players who don’t seem to mind leveraging their government positions to enrich themselves personally. Esper should fit right in.

An Army veteran and former Bush administration official, Esper was confirmed as Trump’s secretary of the Army in 2017. He took over as acting defense secretary last month following the unexpected resignation of Patrick Shanahan, whom Trump was poised to nominate for the position permanently. The president officially conferred the nomination to Esper on Monday. The following day, Esper testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, where another entry on his resume was pulled into the spotlight: the seven years he spent as the top lobbyist for Raytheon, the defense contractor that does billions of dollars of business with the government every year.

As detailed in Rolling Stone’s investigation into the influence of Trump’s leadership council of business executives, Raytheon hasn’t had much of a problem working its tentacles into the Trump administration. Esper sat on that council while still with Raytheon, and in July 2017 was announced as the president’s nominee to take over as secretary of the Army. “It’s the best time that we’ve ever seen for the defense industry,” Raytheon CEO Thomas Kennedy said a year later

Particularly concerned with Esper’s glaring conflict of interest was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). The presidential candidate began her questioning by asking Esper if would agree to recuse himself from participating in government business involving Raytheon while serving as defense secretary, similar to how Shanahan agreed to recuse himself from participating in doing business with Boeing, his former employer. Esper wasn’t interested. “On the advice of my ethics folks at the Pentagon, the career professionals: no, their recommendation is not to,” he said.

more...

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-defense-secretary-mark-esper-859988/

[Bettie]

1. Great, more corruption

if only there were some governmental body with the power to investigate corruption.