For Immediate Release
DHS Press Office
Contact: 202-282-8010
I am very pleased that the President has nominated Ashton Carter to be the next Secretary of Defense. Ash is a good friend and a former colleague at DoD, when he served as Under Secretary and then Deputy Secretary of Defense, and I was that Department’s General Counsel. Ash Carter understands the Defense Department and all its complexity as well as any person alive, and he has all the skills and proven ability to lead that large Department. Ash understands the complex national security issues we face today, and is already at the top of the learning curve. I have personally observed Ash master the most difficult issues imaginable. Ash is forceful, articulate and decisive. On a more personal level, I know Ash Carter is a man with a big heart to go with a big brain. He is a loyal friend and will be a champion for the men and women of the U.S. military and their families. It’s an overused cliché in Washington -- but in my view it really is true that there is no one more prepared or qualified to be Secretary of Defense than Ash Carter.
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