Dozens of retired military and defense leaders on Friday criticized President Donald Trump and accused him of using the federal armed forces to undermine the rights of Americans protesting police brutality and the murder of George Floyd.
The criticism was voiced in an opinion piece signed by 89 former defense officials that was published by The Washington Post, and in a letter of support for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, signed by 55 retired military leaders.
A week ago, security forces used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a peaceful protest near the White House, shortly before Trump walked to that area to pose with a Bible in front of a fire-damaged church. The president also threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to summon federal troops to quell the protests.
The Post article accuses Trump of betraying the oath he took when he took office “by threatening to order members of the United States armed forces to violate the rights of his American comrades.” Defense leaders want the President end any plan to send active-duty forces to cities and avoid using them in any way that could jeopardize the constitutional rights of your compatriots.
The article was signed by both Republicans and Democrats, including former Defense Secretaries Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel, Ash Carter and William Cohen; former director of national intelligence James Clapper; former CIA Director Michael Hayden; and former Navy Secretaries Sean O’Keefe, Ray Mabus and Richard Danzig.
In a letter released by the Biden campaign, some leaders – including retired General Merrill McPeak, who was chief of staff of the Air Force in the 1990s -, ask Trump to stop “smearing the armed forces ”by placing them against peaceful protesters. They want the president to suspend his “divisive rhetoric” and acknowledge valid complaints from black Americans.
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