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Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden is fac­ing esca­lat­ing pres­sure from com­pet­ing fac­tions with­in his own par­ty as he final­izes his choice for sec­re­tary of defense.

Black lead­ers have encour­aged the incom­ing pres­i­dent to select an African Amer­i­can to diver­si­fy what has so far been a large­ly white prospec­tive Cab­i­net, while oth­ers are push­ing him to appoint a woman to lead the Depart­ment of Defense…At the same time, a grow­ing col­lec­tion of pro­gres­sive groups is oppos­ing the lead­ing female con­tender, Michèle Flournoy…

A coali­tion of at least sev­en pro­gres­sive groups warned Biden to avoid Flournoy in an open let­ter to Biden… that ref­er­enced her record of “ill-advised pol­i­cy deci­sions” — par­tic­u­lar­ly in rela­tion to Sau­di Ara­bia, Yemen and Afghanistan — and an “opaque his­to­ry of pri­vate-sec­tor activity.”