TARA COPP AND LOLITA C. BALDOR
President Donald Trump’s nominee to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, told senators Tuesday that he understands he is an unknown and unconventional nominee — but that the U.S. is facing unconventional and unprecedented threats and he is ready to serve in its defense.
At his confirmation hearing to become the top U.S. military officer, he said he would be candid in his advice to Trump and vowed to be apolitical. While Caine stopped short of criticizing top leaders for using a Signal chat to discuss plans for an attack against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, he told senators during questioning that he always communicates in proper channels.
Caine, who was not part of the Signal chat and deferred on many questions about the controversy, said that if he found himself in situations where classified information was being posted inappropriately, he “would weigh in and stop it.”
Caine was nominated after Trump fired Gen. CQ Brown Jr., seen by the administration as endorsing diversity, equity and inclusion contrary to the president’s agenda. He had been the second Black general to serve as chairman. The firing raised concerns among Democrats that Trump was politicizing the military, and many of the questions Caine faced before the Senate Armed Services Committee centered on that topic.
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