After reporting revealed how Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley had worked against the possibility of then-President Donald Trump starting a war during his final weeks in office, certain Republicans have lashed out, criticizing the general for his supposed subversion of the established order. Notably, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who’s among those who’ve turned against Milley, didn’t even reference the dangers of Trump’s volatile behavior in a recent letter to Biden regarding the situation. At a White House press conference on Wednesday, Biden administration press secretary Jen Psaki shut down Republicans who’ve been whining about Milley.
She pointed out those Republicans’ complicity in an attempted insurrection, which seriously undercuts any authority that they may claim underlies their remarks regarding Milley. As Psaki put it:
‘The president has complete confidence in [Milley’s] leadership, his patriotism, and his fidelity to our Constitution. I can’t speak to the former president’s experience with him or the former president’s views of him. But this president — this current president, who follows the Constitution, who’s not fomenting an insurrection, who follows the rule of law has complete confidence in Chairman Milley and him continuing to serve in his role.’
Asked a follow-up question about the criticism lobbed at Milley from Republicans, Psaki added as follows:
‘I don’t think the president is looking for the guidance of members of Congress who stood by while the president of the United States and the leader of their party fomented an insurrection and many of them were silent.’
Watch Psaki’s comments below:
Trump himself has also spoken out against Milley after revelations emerged about the general’s work to thwart the threats to the nation and world that were posed by the then-president’s recklessness. Trump said that if certain allegations were true, then he would expect that Milley “would be tried for TREASON in that he would have been dealing with his Chinese counterpart behind the President’s back and telling China that he would be giving them notification” of an attack against them.
Milley is reported to have twice spoken with a counterpart of his in China, aiming “to assure [Chinese General] Li [Zuocheng] the United States was stable and not going to attack and, if there were to be an attack, he would alert his counterpart ahead of time,” as Reuters explains. These communications were not conducted in complete secrecy, contrary to certain insinuations from observers. Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin said this week that she’s been told that over a dozen people were on the calls.
