Biden appoints Air Force Chief on Thursday to succeed Milley

WASHINGTON — President Biden plans to appoint General Charles Q. Brown, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, as the country’s top military officer on Thursday, formalizing what was one of Washington’s worst-kept secrets.

If confirmed by the Senate, General Brown would be only the second black man, after Colin L. Powell, to hold the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the president’s top military adviser.

Gen. Brown would succeed Gen. Mark A. Milley, whose tenure spanned four tumultuous years during which President Donald J. Trump made efforts to use active-duty troops against U.S. protesters; the riots at the Capitol on January 6, 2021; the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan; and the war in Ukraine.

General Brown’s confirmation would also mean that, along with Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, the top two Pentagon leaders would be black men for the first time in history.

The White House said Biden would announce the nomination Thursday afternoon in the Rose Garden.

General Brown, who has extensive experience in the Middle East and Asia, would join Mr. Austin in advising Mr. Biden on national security issues, from the war in Ukraine to China’s military expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. A senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity said General Brown was well aware of China’s challenges and was keenly aware of NATO’s capabilities and prospects.

The two men would also represent the Pentagon in congressional hearings, before often-hostile Republican lawmakers who have complained that the Defense Department has become too “woke up.”

For example, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, complained during a radio interview this month that the Biden administration’s efforts to expand diversity in the military were weakening the force. “We are losing our recruiting readiness so quickly in the military,” Mr Tuberville said. “And why? I’ll tell you why. Because the Democrats are attacking our military and saying we need to get the white extremists, the white nationalists out.”

He said that while Democrats view white nationalists as racists, “I call them Americans.”

By appointing another African-American man to a senior position at the Pentagon, Mr. Biden could set up a controversial stint on Capitol Hill. But the president also rearranged the characters in a photo of Mr. Trump surrounded by Pentagon leaders who were exclusively white.

General Brown, a fighter pilot, prevailed against his closest rival, Marine Corps commander General David H. Berger. Commonly known as “CQ”, General Brown is not a talker like General Milley, who likes long historical expositions that connect modern military and past political maneuvering. But General Brown brings the work with it as it arises.

Take the nationwide protests surrounding the June 2020 death of George Floyd, an African-American man, by police officers in Minneapolis. Mr Trump wanted to invoke the Insurrere Act to send troops to attack the protesters. Gen. Brown was days away from his Senate vote in a Republican-led Senate to become Chief of Staff of the Air Force, but that didn’t stop him from posting a five-minute video online that electrified the rank and file.

“I think of how full I am with emotion, not just for George Floyd, but for the many African Americans who suffered the same fate as George Floyd,” said General Brown in the video, an unusually public statement from a senior military leader. on a sensitive and politically charged issue.

“I think of protests in my country, it is yours, dear land of freedom, the equality expressed in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that I have sworn to support and defend all my adult life. I think of a history of racial issues and my own experiences that didn’t always sing about freedom and equality.”

It was an extraordinary move for a general recently promoted by Mr. Trump, who was angry at the time at what he perceived as the Pentagon’s intransigence about its desire to deploy the troops. But General Brown’s video also immediately identified a potential heir — should he survive the remaining months of Trump’s term — of General Milley.

Eric Schmitt reporting contributed.