ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Reuters
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UNITED STATES – The American Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley, on Tuesday, September 28, denied having doubted the mental state of former President Donald Trump at the end of his term or even having believed that – He was preparing to attack China, assuring that his appeals to his Chinese counterpart were aimed at reducing tension with Beijing, in agreement with the administration.
“I am sure President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese and it was my direct responsibility, on behalf of the minister, to publicize the president’s orders and intentions,” he said. insured. “My mission at that time was de-escalation (…) We are not going to attack you”, specified the Chief of Staff.
An exchange with Nancy Pelosi
General Milley is at the center of a controversy after the revelations of two Washington Post journalists, Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, on his contacts with his Chinese counterparts before and after the last presidential election, due to their health concerns mentality of Donald Trump.
In their recently published book “Peril”, they claim General Milley nodded in a January phone conversation with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she called Donald Trump “unbalanced” .
Nancy Pelosi had telephoned General Milley the day after Donald Trump’s supporters assaulted the Capitol on January 6, to make sure the president could not use nuclear codes.
“I explained to him that the president has the sole authority to launch a nuclear attack and that he does not do it alone, and that I am not qualified to determine the mental state of the President of the United States,” said in front of the elected representatives of Congress General Milley, who explained himself for the first time on this affair. “There are processes, protocols and procedures for that,” he added.
Calls coordinated with the administration
General Milley also denied having twice secretly telephoned his Chinese counterpart, General Li Zuocheng, to assure him that the United States would not suddenly attack China and to reassure him about the stability of the American state. “The October 30 and January 8 calls were coordinated before and after, with Defense Minister Mark Esper and then with Acting Minister Christopher Miller,” he explained.
These calls were prompted by “information from the intelligence services which led us to conclude that the Chinese feared an attack by the United States,” he added. “My loyalty is absolute”, assured General Milley, while elected Republicans called for the chief of staff to be sacked for having exceeded his functions.
The highest ranking American official nevertheless admitted to having spoken with Bob Woodward before the publication of the book, and with other journalists who wrote very critical works on the last months of Donald Trump’s mandate.
“I think it’s very important that high-ranking officials talk to the media in all their forms to explain what we are doing,” he noted. General Milley assured that he could not certify that his words were faithfully represented in these books, not having read them. After the publication of excerpts from the book on September 15, President Joe Biden renewed his confidence in General Milley.
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