The Pentagon\u2019s top officials on Wednesday defended the military\u2019s tradition of staying out of elections, after a new book reported that Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, feared former president Donald Trump would attempt a coup.<\/p>\n
Milley repeatedly declined to confirm whether the comments attributed to him in the book \u201cI Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump\u2019s Catastrophic Final Year,\u201d are accurate, but said he and other senior officers upheld their constitutional obligations throughout the chaotic presidential transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe military did not, and will not, and should not ever get involved in domestic politics,\u201d Milley said, speaking at a Pentagon news conference. \u201cWe don\u2019t arbitrate elections. That\u2019s the job of the judiciary and the legislature and the American people. It is not the job of the U.S. military. We stayed out of politics. We\u2019re an apolitical institution.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the book, Milley compares Trump\u2019s frequent unfounded claims of widespread election fraud to behavior by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who insisted he was both a victim and savior.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a Reichstag moment,\u201d Milley told aides, according to the book by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonnig. \u201cThe gospel of the F\u00fchrer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It’s worth pointing out again that General Milley has not denied any of the claims and quotes from the book. Of course, Milley has the full confidence of the Secretary of Defense.<\/p>\n
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the retired Army general whom Biden selected to run the Pentagon, defended Milley, saying he has full faith and confidence in him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not guessing at his character,\u201d Austin said, noting that they had served together in combat. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have a political bone in his body.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So our military is being led by two liars.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Jeff LPH 3 for sending this one in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A year ago, General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was decried by … Most political general in generations claims he’s “apolitical”<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220,359,237,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-floggings-will-continue-until-morale-improves","category-army","category-big-pentagon","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115681,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115680\/revisions\/115681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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