Donald Trump's team has added a name to its list of potential candidates for secretary of defense — outgoing Sen. Kelly Ayotte, according to two sources familiar with the ongoing discussions. If chosen, Ayotte would stand out in a Trump administration as a neoconservative defense hawk and one of the few women in the incoming Trump Cabinet, The Washington Post reports.
No decisions have been made and the current list for possible defense secretary picks still centers around retired Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Kellogg, former Defense Intelligence Agency director Gen. Mike Flynn and Sen. Jeff Sessions. Flynn would need a congressional waiver to bypass a law that requires any defense secretary to be seven years out of active duty service before taking command of the Pentagon.
But Ayotte’s name has surfaced in internal discussions as a potential olive branch to the GOP foreign policy establishment that the Trump campaign was often at odds with over the past year. Ayotte is regarded as knowledgeable and competent, sources familiar with the discussions said, and would surely get swift Senate confirmation.
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