Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine will testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee next week as part of his bid to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to a committee schedule posted to Congress.gov on Wednesday.
The hearing, set for Tuesday, will be a key step for Caine to convince any senators who may be skeptical of his loyalties and qualifications after President Donald Trump nominated him to replace the previous chairman, Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown, a Black man whom Trump fired without providing a reason but who drew the ire of conservatives for speaking positively about diversity in the military.
Senators are almost certain to question Caine on the unusual circumstances of his nomination, whether he is committed to providing apolitical military advice, and the fact that he does not meet the statutory qualifications to be chairman.
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By law, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff must have previously served as vice chairman, chief of staff of one of the military branches, or commander of a combatant command -- none of which Caine ever did. But the law also allows the president to waive those requirements if he decides doing so "is necessary in the national interest."
Caine is also retired, meaning he has to be brought back onto active duty in order to become chairman.
Caine served his military career in the Air National Guard. One of his most prominent roles was being a deputy commander of a special operations task force fighting the ISIS terrorist group in 2018 and 2019.
It was during his work on the anti-ISIS campaign that Caine seems to have endeared himself to Trump.
Trump has claimed that, as other military officers gave him cautious advice on how to defeat ISIS, Caine gave him a plan to defeat ISIS quickly.
Trump has repeated the story multiple times and, through the years, added elements suggesting Caine is also a staunch political supporter.
"'Yes, sir. I love you, sir. I think you're great, sir. I'll kill for you, sir,'" Trump claimed last year Caine once told him. "Then he puts on a Make America Great Again hat."
Former Virginia Military Institute classmates of Caine's pushed back on the characterization of him as an ideologue in interviews with Military.com last month. But they also expressed concern about the circumstances of his nomination and the pressure he could face from Trump to be a loyalist.
Ethics experts have also raised concern that business interests Caine has developed since his retirement from the National Guard could present a conflict of interest. In particular, Caine is a member of an investment firm that is run by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and onetime adviser.
Trump announced in February he would tap Caine to become chairman and officially sent his nomination to the Senate earlier this month.
As his hearing approaches, Caine has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill to shore up support. Republicans he has met with have, expectedly, offered full support, while Democrats have not ruled out supporting his confirmation.
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