[ad_1]
WASHINGTON — One of the leading contenders to be the next secretary of defense has withdrawn from the running.
The candidate, former Under Secretary of Defense Michelle A. Flournoy, said she was withdrawing from the running for family reasons.
Flournoy was thought to have been at the top of President Obama’s list of candidates to replace Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who resigned under pressure on Monday.
She said in a letter Tuesday that she would remain on the board of directors of the Center for a New American Security, a Washington policy group where she co-founded and serves as chief executive. In the letter, first reported by Foreign Policy magazine, she said she had personally asked President Obama to remove her as a candidate.
Her decision came a day after a spokesman for Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island made it clear he was not interested in the post given that he is currently the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.
That makes former Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter the first choice on a list of candidates White House officials listed Monday, though the officials said Obama does not plan to make an announcement this week.
Other candidates floating around in Washington include one considered an unlikely candidate (former Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut) and another considered even more unlikely (White House chief of staff and former vice national security adviser Denis R. McDonough): Mr. Lieberman is thought to be too hawkish and conservative for the White House, Mr. McDonough too liberal for the Pentagon.
Another candidate for Secretary of Homeland Security is Jay C. Johnson. Mr. Johnson served as the Pentagon’s chief counsel during President Barack Obama’s first administration and led the effort to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gays in the military. But Mr. Johnson was a controversial figure among Obama’s left-leaning supporters because he was one of the legal architects of the administration’s war policy.
There was also much speculation about Louis R. Chenevere, who suddenly resigned on Monday as chairman and chief executive officer of United Technologies Corp.
But a check with the White House quickly put an end to that rumor: “We tend not to go to Canadians,” a senior administration official said.
[ad_2]
Source link
