{"id":1557972,"date":"2022-07-17T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2022-07-17T10:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1557972"},"modified":"2022-07-17T06:04:40","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T10:04:40","slug":"top-republican-lawmakers-want-answers-on-if-gen-milley-usurped-trumps-power-as-commander-in-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-republican-lawmakers-want-answers-on-if-gen-milley-usurped-trumps-power-as-commander-in-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Republican Lawmakers Want Answers on If Gen. Milley Usurped Trump&#8217;s Power as Commander in Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftop-republican-lawmakers-want-answers-on-if-gen-milley-usurped-trumps-power-as-commander-in-chief%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1557972&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>Not only does the Jan. 6 Capitol riot continue to garner national media attention; the plot continues to thicken, as well. And nowhere is it thicker than in reports that Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley took top-secret action to preempt then-President Donald Trump from launching a nuclear strike. No, really.<\/p>\n<p><em>Why<\/em> Trump would\u2019ve reached a point that would have led him to think that launching a military strike \u2014 particularly a <em>nuclear strike<\/em> \u2014 would help strengthen his case about a \u201crigged\u201d and \u201cstolen\u201d election is beyond my capacity for logical thinking. But let\u2019s entertain the idea and continue with the rest of the story.<\/p>\n<p>The story began publicly in September 2021, when CNN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/09\/14\/politics\/woodward-book-trump-nuclear\/index.html?utm_medium=social&#038;utm_content=2021-09-14T16%3A00%3A11&#038;utm_source=twCNN&#038;utm_term=link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> on the then-new book \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Peril-Bob-Woodward\/dp\/1982182911\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Peril<\/a>\u201d by investigative \u201cjournalist\u201d Bob Woodward and veteran Washington Post reporter Robert Costa, in which the authors <a href=\"https:\/\/redstate.com\/streiff\/2021\/09\/15\/general-mark-milley-seems-to-have-been-the-source-for-bob-woodwards-story-about-mark-milley-undermining-the-constitution-n443229\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">claimed Milley<\/a> worried that Trump could \u201cgo rogue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As written in \u201cPeril,\u201d Milley called a secret meeting on January 8, 2022, with senior military leaders. \u201cYou never know what a president\u2019s trigger point is,\u201d Milley told his senior staff, according to the book.<\/p>\n<p>During that meeting, Milley instructed officials in charge of the National Military Command Center not to take orders from anyone \u2014 including Trump \u2014 unless he (Milley) was involved, according to CNN. \u201cNo matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I\u2019m part of that procedure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Woodward and Costa wrote, predictably so: \u201cMilley considered it an oath.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fast forward to Saturday, July 16, 2022. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For more than a year, Milley has apparently <em>also considered it an oath<\/em> to repeatedly dodge questions, if not outright ignore them, about the allegations in Woodward and Costa\u2019s book. Moreover, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2022\/07\/16\/grassley-banks-milley-honor-word-stop-dodging-questions-woodward-book-claims\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> by Breitbart, top Republican lawmakers have <em>had enough<\/em> of the TDS-riddled chairman\u2019s alleged stonewalling. Mlley told members of Congress after the book was released that he would review the allegations in the book and get back to them on their accuracy or lack thereof.<\/p>\n<p>Despite repeated requests, Milley has <em>shockingly<\/em> [sarcasm] failed to honor his word.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Chuck Grassley made his frustrations with Milley\u2019s lack of response clear, recounting the book\u2019s narrative about Milley\u2019s alleged actions.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Milley allegedly placed military hands \u2014 his hands \u2014 on controls that belonged exclusively to the president. According to\u00a0<em>Peril<\/em>, [he] summoned senior operation officers in the military command center to his office. He had them take \u2018an oath\u2019 not to \u2018act\u2019 on the president\u2019s orders without checking with him first.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Again, \u201cshocking.\u201d Not to mention <em>entirely believable<\/em>, given Milley\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/redstate.com\/nick-arama\/2021\/09\/20\/former-senior-military-official-milley-had-pattern-of-behavior-of-exceeding-his-authority-and-undermining-trump-n445466\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">past behavior<\/a> in respect to Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Grassley forcefully continued:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>These brazen words and actions, if accurate, strike at the heart of our democracy \u2014 civilian control of the military. They turn this guiding rule upside down and show utter contempt for the commander-in-chief coming from the nation\u2019s top general. They are dangerous and contrary to military code 10 US Code 888.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Grassley also said Milley assured him in a letter his actions were on the \u201cup and up.\u201d<\/p>\n[embedded content]\n<p>Grassley explained that he began sending handwritten notes to Milley, finally receiving a ten-page response \u2014 in which the chairman entirely ignored his questions. He went on to say in a later email that Grassley had never raised direct questions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I can legitimately ask,\u201d Grassley said, \u201cis that Pentagon baloney, or what is it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grassley called B.S. on Milley\u2019s claim:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I think Gen. Milley knows better. He knows the score. [\u2026] However, to date, not a peep from the general. His silence speaks volumes. Something doesn\u2019t smell just right. As a Pentagon watchdog, when I get a whiff of wrongdoing, I sink in my teeth and don\u2019t let go.<\/p>\n<p>So Congressman Jim Banks, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and I upped the ante on April the 11th with 12 pointed questions. We gave Gen. Milley a second bite at the apple to clear the air. Now, two and a half months later, we still have no response.<\/p>\n<p>Gen. Milley [\u2026]\u00a0 Honor your word and so the questions come clean with the American people. We are all ears.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Congressman Banks was just as clear, and even more adamant, on the floor of the House:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Our Constitution is clear: the president is the commander-in-chief. Sidestepping the president and violating the chain of command is a grave crime.<\/p>\n<p>According to Bob Woodward\u2019s book\u00a0<em>Peril<\/em>, Gen. Mark Milley directed senior military officers NOT to follow the president\u2019s orders, unless Gen. Milley approved them first.<\/p>\n<p>When I asked Gen. Milley about\u00a0<em>Peril<\/em>\u00a0at an Armed Services hearing, he claimed he hadn\u2019t READ it. Convenient. So Sen. Chuck Grassley and I sent a letter to Gen. Milley, asking him to verify or refute the books\u2019 claims.<\/p>\n<p>He hasn\u2019t responded. I am calling on Gen. Milley to set the record straight.\u00a0Gen. Milley is accused of secretly SEIZING the president\u2019s military powers. That is the most serious crime. If he is innocent, he has a duty to say so.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Tough spot for the chairman of the joint chiefs. Particularly given Milley\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/redstate.com\/elizabeth-vaughn\/2020\/06\/11\/what-gen-mark-milley-apologizes-to-students-for-walk-to-st-johns-church-with-trump-after-arson-attack-n241556\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">obvious disdain<\/a> for Trump. Needless to say, Trump\u2019s opinion of Milley is <a href=\"https:\/\/redstate.com\/bonchie\/2022\/01\/30\/donald-trump-blasts-mark-milley-in-triggering-commentary-n515088\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mutual<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The bottom line:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Woodward being Woodward and Costa being Costa, despite Mark Milley\u2019s potential usurping of Trump\u2019s executive power, the authors did their hypocritical best to rationalize and justify Milley\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Some might contend that Milley had overstepped his authority and taken extraordinary power for himself,\u201d they wrote but said the chairman believed his actions were \u201ca good faith precaution to ensure there was no historic rupture in the international order, no accidental war with China or others, and no use of nuclear weapons,\u201d as Milley \u201cfelt no absolute certainty that the military could control or trust Trump.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Might <em>contend?<\/em> Woodward and Costa <em>believe<\/em> Milley did exactly what their book alleges.<\/p>\n<p>They also know, as Sen. Grassley clearly pointed out, that those actions were <em>dangerous and contrary to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/10\/888\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">military code 10 US Code 888<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There is nothing <em>contending<\/em> about it, <em>Jack<\/em> \u2014 I thought I\u2019d toss in a little Bidenese, for effect \u2014 the authors\u2019 blatant hypocrisy, based solely on political biases, renders them incapable of seeing the truth, much less \u201creporting\u201d it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not only does the Jan. 6 Capitol riot continue to garner national media attention; the plot continues to thicken, as well. And nowhere is it thicker than in reports that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1574045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1557972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1557972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1574045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1557972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1557972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1557972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}