President Donald Trump nominated Patrick Shanahan, a former executive with the Boeing Corporation, to become Secretary of Defense in May 2019.
Shanahan became the acting director after retired Marine Gen. James Mattis resigned as Defense Secretary over policy differences with Trump, Reuters reported.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-shanahan-idUSKCN1SF2EI/
Shanahan remained the acting defense secretary for six months, earning him “the dubious distinction of being the longest serving ‘acting defense secretary’ in the nation’s history,” Time magazine reported.
https://time.com/5609295/patrick-shanahan-nomination-pulled/
This quote will one day make a nice epitaph for Shanahan’s gravestone.
Shanahan withdrew his name from consideration a month after being nominated after it was revealed that Shanahan and his former wife Kimberley had been involved in a bloody domestic assault incident in 2010.
The Shanahans, who had both been drinking, claimed that the other was the aggressor in a bloody confrontation that moved from the bedroom and ended up in the front yard of the couple’s home in Seattle, according to reports from multiple news organizations.
Police arrested Kimberley Shanahan on suspicion of domestic violence. Prosecutors later dropped the charge, citing a lack of evidence.
Shanahan’s nomination initially stalled because of an investigation into whether Shanahan had violated ethics rules. He was cleared of any wrongdoing.
One staffer working for a Republican senator said that the report of the domestic incident came when the military was facing charges by women of physical and emotional abuse.
“The facts may not be clear, but it’s perceptions that count,” the staffer said, “and the last thing it needs is a Secretary whose spouse accused him of hitting her.”
https://time.com/5609295/patrick-shanahan-nomination-pulled/
