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The president-elect will introduce retired four-star General Lloyd J. Austin III as his nominee for Secretary of Defense at 2:30pm today. We also have the suggestion that Joe Biden has reportedly selected Ohio congresswoman Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and and the former agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration.
Fudge was first elected to Congress in 2008 to represent a district that includes Cleveland, and is a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Vilsack spent eight years as head of the US Department of Agriculture during the Obama administration and served two terms as Iowa governor.
Related: Biden cabinet: Marcia Fudge reportedly tapped for housing and Tom Vilsack for agriculture
Peter Baker at the New York Times was also struck by the extreme contrast between the two events yesterday. He writes:
Rarely has there been a single hour on a single day that saw such discordant messages emanating from Washington in a time of national crisis. In the middle of a transition of power that has already proved more unsettling than any in more than a century, the departing and incoming presidents on Tuesday offered the American people vastly divergent assessments of the state of their union.
“We’re here to discuss a monumental national achievement,” President Trump boasted on one screen. “From the instant the coronavirus invaded our shores, we raced into action.”
