Obama Searches For New Secretary of Defense
BERMAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY. The White House searching for a nominee to take over the Department of Defense after surprise resignation or perhaps not so surprise, pushing out of Chuck Hagel. Already two top contenders have taken themselves out of contention. Whoever gets the nod will have to deal with a widening conflict against ISIS that is assuming they can get confirmed by the Senate. Want to bring in CNN military analyst, Retired Major-General James "Spider" Marks. Spider, thanks so much for being with us. You know, we've seen two potential nominees, Michelle Flornoy, and Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, already saying they don't want the job. Secretary of defense, it's a big, big job. It's something the public figures, you would think, would want to you know take a stab at. Why do you think the reluctance? MAJOR GENERAL JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS</s>CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think in both cases, those individuals have full-time engagements right now. Jack Reed certainly a senator from Rhode Island, a veteran, a West Point graduate. So he knows the inside of what the issues are. But I think going forward, the commitment to be the sec-def would have a very short horizon of two years. He is electable in Rhode Island for the long term. And Michelle Flornoy has been very upfront. You have to really admire her tremendously. She says look, I've got a family and I have to focus in on them at that critical stage in my life and their development and this needs to be first. I think what happened in both cases is they went forward and they said, please, Mr. President, don't ask me. Because if you ask me, the answer is going to be yes, I would prefer that you not ask me. I think in those particular incidents, that's what you're looking at.</s>BERMAN: You seem to be giving the White House the benefit of the doubt here because particularly after what happened to Chuck Hagel, we've had four secretaries of defense now already in this administration. The secretary CNN has been reporting, you know, they officially say he resigned, but in effect he was pushed out. Is this a job right now that many in the security community are a little reluctant to take?</s>MARKS: Well, John, I don't know that I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. I think what you're seeing is there is no more important position than to be a part of the national security team at such a significant level, the secretary of defense, that there would be a clamoring of incredibly qualified individuals to take the job. In this particular instance you have two that said, look, I've got full-time engagements so I'm committed in a whole bunch of ways to national defense and what's best for America. I would prefer not to engage in that particular position. Clearly, this is a very tough administration to be a secretary of defense. I think you nailed it. I think this administration is not looking for any contrarian views. They're not looking for outside input. I would imagine the person coming in to be the sec-def and there will be one. First and foremost has to be confirmable. That may not be the criteria you would like to see. It might be the best confirmable person we could get through the door and it's a two-year horizon unless the president says we want to extend that individual. But that's so hypothetical. I think what you're looking at is this is a very tough administration if you're trying to have an open discussion about national security in a very tough administration like this.</s>BERMAN: Some of the criticism or at least some of the whispers about Secretary Hagel are that he's not a war-time secretary. As someone who has served in the military, what does that mean and what kind of a difference does a secretary of defense mean to people like you, people in uniform?</s>MARKS: You know, Secretary Hagel had all the credentials and incredible credibility with the force. He was an enlisted man in Vietnam, wounded in Vietnam, recognized for bravery. I mean, this individual gets it. The issue of his being able to fit and that's what we're talking about in this administration clearly was not as polished and decided upon more fulsomely as you prefer. He's doing his job and he says look I have a few questions about what's going on vis-a-vis our fight against ISIS. I would agree with you he was pushed off to the side. So a war-time secretary of defense could be described in the terms of Secretary Hagel. But more importantly, that's not what's important. What's important is how can the secretary of defense do the bidding of the soldiers and the service members out there in the edges of this incredibly large organization, who are putting themselves at risk? Can that individual make the key decisions inside the beltway, inside this administration, so that their necessary requirements are being met? That's what it's all about. It doesn't have to be somebody who is out there and has been out there. It's somebody who can do the fighting where he or she needs to do the fighting and that's here in this town.</s>BERMAN: You talk about the men and women out there on the edges right now of the military effort. One of those places continues to be Afghanistan where just yesterday there was an attack on British convoy. Spider, do you think this shows that the Taliban is gaining strength once again?</s>MARKS: Well, it certainly does. When you are in a position where the Taliban can exert itself with authority and with precision, clearly they have good intelligence. They know what the movements look like. They know what routine looks like and then they can attack. These are not serendipitous. These are not movements to contact. These are established and directed attacks that are taking place, which means that the network still exists and it's important that the Afghan government and the Afghan security forces clearly are taking the lead. But the United States and the coalition partners need to remain a part of that until such time as Afghanistan can step up and say look, we are more confident moving forward. And that clearly is going to take time as we've seen. And this government in Afghanistan has said we're looking for your help. The previous one did not.</s>BERMAN: General James "Spider" Marks, always great to have you. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Appreciate it.</s>MARKS: John, thanks very much. You as well.</s>BERMAN: All right, millions of people headed out for the biggest shopping day of the year. So what are some of the best bargains to find on this Black Friday? You don't have to wait any longer, we're about to tell you.