
Biden taps Lloyd Austin as defense secretary
Austin will require a special waiver passed by Congress in order to exempt him from a federal law requiring military officers to wait seven years before serving as defense secretary.
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Ed O'Keefe is CBS News' senior White House and political correspondent reporting for all CBS News platforms.
He is part of the team covering President Trump and covered all four years of Joe Biden's presidency. O'Keefe previously reported on the 2024 presidential election, including Biden's decision to exit the race and the quick emergence of Vice President Harris as the Democratic candidate. He served as a floor reporter at the 2024 Democratic and Republican conventions. In 2020, he was lead correspondent for the Biden-Harris campaign, the Democratic presidential primaries, and at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
Since 2018, O'Keefe has helped lead coverage of election nights and the ensuing days from CBS News' Election Headquarters in New York City. He also helped lead CBS News' hours-long coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the United States Capitol.
From the White House to the campaign trail, O'Keefe's reports stretch from the politics of the moment to how policy enacted in Washington affects the nation and the world. His reporting has taken him to Canada to assess President Trump's trade war; to Guatemala to see why people immigrate to the United States and ignore warnings about the dangers of doing so; to Las Vegas to interview service workers eager for tax breaks on tipped wages; and to multiple states for lengthy conversations with voters grappling with their choice for president. Along the way, he's interviewed dozens of presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial candidates.
Since joining CBS News in April 2018, O'Keefe has contributed to coverage of the July 2024 assassination attempt on Trump; the 2018 and 2022 midterm elections; the contentious confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh; funerals for late presidents and senators; the record-long 2019 federal government shutdown; and the blackface and sexual misconduct scandals that rocked Virginia state government that same year.
Before CBS News, O'Keefe spent more than a dozen years with The Washington Post covering federal agencies, federal employees, Congress, and presidential elections. A proud Guatemalan-Irish-American, he is a lifetime member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and once served as one of the group's national vice presidents. He grew up in Delmar, New York, and attended American University in Washington.
Austin will require a special waiver passed by Congress in order to exempt him from a federal law requiring military officers to wait seven years before serving as defense secretary.
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