The top US military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, was so shaken that then-President Donald Trump and his allies might attempt a coup or take other dangerous or illegal measures after the November election that Milley and other top officials informally planned for different ways to stop Trump, according to excerpts of an upcoming book obtained by CNN.
The book, from Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, describes how Milley and the other Joint Chiefs discussed a plan to resign, one-by-one, rather than carry out orders from Trump that they considered to be illegal, dangerous or ill-advised.
“It was a kind of Saturday Night Massacre in reverse,” Leonnig and Rucker write.
The book recounts how for the first time in modern US history the nation’s top military officer, whose role is to advise the president, was preparing for a showdown with the commander in chief because he feared a coup attempt after Trump lost the November election.
“They may try, but they’re not going to f**king succeed,” Milley told his deputies, according to the authors. “You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with the guns.”
In the days leading up to January 6, Leonnig and Rucker write, Milley was worried about Trump’s call to action. “Milley told his staff that he believed Trump was stoking unrest, possibly in hopes of an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military.”
Milley viewed Trump as “the classic authoritarian leader with nothing to lose,” the authors write, and he saw parallels between Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric as a victim and savior and Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
“This is a Reichstag moment,” Milley told aides, according to the book. “The gospel of the Führer.”
But behind the scenes, the book says Milley was on the frontlines of trying to protect the country, including an episode where he tried to stop Trump from firing FBI Director Chris Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel.
After the January 6 insurrection, the book says Milley held a conference call each day with Meadows and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Leonnig and Rucker report the officials used the calls to compare notes and “collectively survey the horizon for trouble.”
“The general theme of these calls was, come hell or high water, there will be a peaceful transfer of power on January twentieth,” one senior official told the authors. “We’ve got an aircraft, our landing gear is stuck, we’ve got one engine, and we’re out of fuel. We’ve got to land this bad boy.”
Milley told aides he saw the calls as an opportunity to keep tabs on Trump, the authors write.
The book reveals Pelosi’s private conversations with Milley during this tenuous period. When Trump fired Esper in November, Pelosi was one of several lawmakers who called Milley. “We are all trusting you,” she said. “Remember your oath.”
After the January 6 insurrection, Pelosi told the general she was deeply concerned that a “crazy,” “dangerous” and “maniac” Trump might use nuclear weapons during his final days in office.
“Ma’am, I guarantee you these processes are very good,” Milley reassured her. “There’s not going to be an accidental firing of nuclear weapons.”
“How can you guarantee me?” Pelosi asked.
“Ma’am, there’s a process,” he said. “We will only follow legal orders. We’ll only do things that are legal, ethical, and moral.”
As the inauguration ceremony ended, Kamala Harris, who had just been sworn in as vice president, paused to thank Milley. “We all know what you and some others did,” she said, according to the authors. “Thank you.”
The book ends with Milley describing his relief that there had not been a coup, thinking to himself, “Thank God Almighty, we landed the ship safely.”
Milley expressed his relief in the moments after Biden was sworn in, speaking to the Obamas sitting on the inauguration stage. Michelle Obama asked Milley how he was feeling.
“No one has a bigger smile today than I do,” Milley said, according to Leonnig and Rucker. “You can’t see it under my mask, but I do.”
So the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs fought Trump on handling the FBI, which is part of the DOJ and not the DOD.
He prepared to counter what he saw as a potential coup by a sitting president.
He was buddy-buddy with Pelosi and the Obamas.
He organized to counter Trump from within the DOD.
Miley is a partisan swamp creature that clearly has his own agenda, but because that is a Leftist Democrat supporting agenda, he’s a hero and not an insubordinate general.
Every high level career government employee conspired to undermine Trump and now they are taking credit for it expecting to cash in on their loyalty to the Swamp Regime.
If anything justifies an attempted insurrection it’s that.
We elected a President and the army of unelected bureaucrats and swamp creatures conspired to take him out.
This guy is completely insane.
Milley apparently blocked action against Antifa — who openly call for the overthrow of the Constitutional government.
Milley is a traitor.
He and Austin are the people who claimed that there is no CRT being pushed in the military at the same time that AF Academy faculty was actively teaching it to cadets. The charitable interpretation is that they are too incompetent to know what is going on in their command; the less charitable interpretation is that they were deliberately lying in that testimony to Congress.
Trump wanted 10,000 US Troops in Washington DC on January 6. He made an official order. He was rightly concerned about his protesters being attacked by Antifa, while the Washington Metropolitan police stood aside and did nothing, like they did in too many demonstrations in the Summer and Fall.
Who blocked him?
Do you think that the FBI, BATFE, Antifa and Black Bloc and various loonie tunes would have been able to convince people to “Storm the Capitol,” if there were a few hundred troops on the grounds backing up undermanned Capitol Police?
90% of the people would have sheered off, and you would not have idiots doing stupid stuff like climbing the walls if there were troops on the ground.
Milley was apparently talking about the transition of power — and how to handle protests — with Nancy Pelosi in preference to following the orders of his commander in chief.
Insubordination?
Betrayal.
If you feel you cannot in good conscience follow orders you believe might given, resign before they are. He chose another course.
Betrayal.
If you feel you cannot in good conscience follow orders you believe might be given, resign before they are. He chose another course.
They were SPECULATING they MIGHT be given illegal orders, simply because they hate the people who voted for the president.
Nancy Pelosi is not in the chain of command. He worked with the leader of the opposing political party regarding a hypothetical about his current Commander in Chief. What else would you call it?
Milley trying to stop a coup?
He pretends he was not a central part of it.
-Take control of the Nation’s News
– Stuff the ballot boxes
– Seize control of the military
– Fortify the Capital
– Persecute political enemies
I’d say 20% responsible.
Don’t forget that the Pentagon slow-walked the withdrawal from Afghanistan, preferring seeing Americans killed to… what?
Tonights Episode of The Twighlight
A Traitorous Gen
Fed Govt and ZuckinBerg are sniffing each others fingers.
Texas Communists run from there job “in Protest” blahahahaha. Ol’stevie and helen can even see threw that.
Ohhh and look at that, Jusin time..and a picture, 3 names and Everythin!!
Cop Killer Bullets blahhahahahaha. Read it.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-man-cop-killer-bullets-racist-manifesto-police-say
Maaaaan wtf
Methamphetamine and heroin. Not a stable mix.
“Dress up like an employee and tie up every one inside.” That there is a cunning plan Cooter!
Reminds me of a scene in The Pentagon Wars. Different premise but same mindset from the top:
Brig. General Robert Laurel Smith: Are you out of your mind, Colonel? If the Pentagon had their choice of busting us or nailing a Soviet spy, they would choose us in a heartbeat!
Lt. Colonel James Burton: Who exactly is “us,” General?
Brig. General Robert Laurel Smith: There are some people who work in the Pentagon who are fed up watching billions of dollars thrown away on defective weapons upon which our troops are supposed to stake their lives. People like you, Colonel. We are the enemy!
Lt. Colonel James Burton: To whom?
Brig. General Robert Laurel Smith: To majors who want to be colonels, to colonels who want to be generals, to generals who want that fourth star, you bet we are the enemy! Nobody moves up without getting things done! So what you don’t want to be is the one who drops the ball, ’cause if you’re the one who drops the ball: no promotion! no star! no cushy job with a contract when you retire!
Ah, the secret here is the jerk is doing politics. Which is supposed to be against the rules.
Of course, the rules don’t apply for our leftist betters.
Seems to me just another case of leftist projection. Of course that leads one to suspect something. I posted about it at my blog…too long for a comment:
https://sailorcurt.com/2021/07/are-democrats-planning-a-coup.html/
Surely he has never given an illegal order then brought the weight of the military to fuck whoever followed it or refused to /sarc.
Kinda makes me wish he tried, disbanded alpabet angencies minda sounds good even with the inevitable chaos…
“We are the ones with the guns” comment caught my eye. No sir the people have them also.