WTF?

The Pentagon has called a halt to transition meetings with Biden's team. Interesting timing when we've just learned of a hacking breach of major US government agencies, including the DoD.

On Friday, Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller announced a two-week pause in transition meetings with Joe Biden’s administration transition team, with some Friday meetings already being rescheduled.

In a statement to American Military News, Miller described the move as a “mutually-agreed upon” pause.

[...]

Miller said the two-week pause will is to allow requests for information “on OWS and COVID-19 information to guarantee a flawless transition.”

“After the mutually-agreed upon holiday pause, which begins tomorrow, we will continue with the transition and rescheduled meetings from today,” Miller said.

[...]

Two weeks ago, the Washington Post reported Pentagon officials were refusing to let the Biden team meet with various military intelligence offices. The Pentagon issued a public statement denying the reporting, while one current defense official told the Washington Post that issues with the transition are actually attributable to Biden’s transition team, which he said tried to directly contact agencies to arrange their visits, rather than submit meeting requests through the Pentagon.

  American Military News

And what? They had to be punished?

Today, Axios reported a Pentagon official also downplayed the latest report of a delay in the transition efforts, calling it “a simple delay of the last few scheduled meetings until after the new year.”

The official told Axios that Miller’s order delayed fewer than two-dozen meetings, but that the DoD staff needed for the meetings were being overwhelmed by the number of meetings they had already participated in.

“These same senior leaders needed to do their day jobs and were being consumed by transition activities,” the official told Axios. “With the holidays we are taking a knee for two weeks. We are still committed to a productive transition.”

"Taking a knee"?

The day after Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper and appointed Miller to serve in the acting role, three top Pentagon officials resigned.

Biden spokesperson Yohannes Abraham directly contradicted acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller's claims that the two teams "mutually agreed" to pause the interviews until after the holiday.

[...]

Meetings planned for Friday were postponed due to "rapidly changing priorities here," said a defense official, citing the FDA's approval of a second coronavirus vaccine, a possible government shutdown, and a massive hack of U.S. government agencies.

  Politico

Making the meetings even more important than ever.

"There have been many agencies and departments that have facilitated the exchange of info and meetings over the past few weeks," Abraham said. "There have been pockets of recalcitrance and DoD is one of them."

Biden spokesperson Jen Psaki added that while the career officials at DoD have been "cooperative and helpful," the team has had "isolated" issues with Trump political appointees.

Imagine that.

Meetings between DoD officials and the transition team got off to a late start on Nov. 24, due to a delay in approval by the General Services Administration, which must greenlight cooperation. The approval came 16 days after Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election.

This marks the second time in less than three weeks that the Pentagon has addressed reports that defense officials have blocked requests from the Biden team to meet with department leaders.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: