Thread by @Cirincione

I am not against his confirmation, but this is a major problem. What did Austin do to earn $1.7 million from Raytheon, one of the top weapons corporations he will now oversee? More importantly, what will the Biden team do to end this corrupting influence? bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

This is not a promising start. One year?! “He also pledged to recuse himself for one year from decisions involving Raytheon, the nation’s No. 3 defense contractor.” How about “for ever”?

And there’s a huge loophole: “It isn’t absolute: an exemption would allow his involvement in a Raytheon issue if a designated Pentagon ethics officer determined that the government’s interest in Austin’s participation outweighed a perception he may not be impartial.”

This cannot be the best we can do. I’d love to hear from @POGOBlog @revolvingdoorDC @IndivisibleTeam @MoveOn and others about what barriers and safeguards @JoeBiden should adopt to curtail the unhealthy influence of weapons corporations on our national security decisions.