In Op-Ed, 10 Ex-Defense Secretaries Say Military Has No Role In Election Dispute

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper joined 9 different former protection secretaries in calling for an finish to challenges to the presidential election.

Olivier Douliery/AFP by way of Getty Images

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Olivier Douliery/AFP by way of Getty Images

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper joined 9 different former protection secretaries in calling for an finish to challenges to the presidential election.

Olivier Douliery/AFP by way of Getty Images

The U.S. presidential election, and the time for questioning its outcomes, is over, all 10 residing former secretaries of protection wrote in a forceful op-ed revealed on Sunday.

“Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted,” the ten males from each Republican and Democratic administrations, wrote.

“The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived,” they mentioned.

The bipartisan group of leaders revealed the letter in The Washington Post as President Trump continues to disclaim his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden. On Saturday, Trump even pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes to overturn his defeat throughout a one-hour cellphone name Saturday.

Former Secretaries of Defense Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta, William Perry, and Donald Rumsfeld, signed the opinion piece.

Two Pentagon heads who served below Trump — Jim Mattis and Mark Esper — additionally signed the piece. Trump eliminated Esper in November as a part of a serious shakeup on the Department of Defense.

The op-ed comes as some Republican lawmakers in Congress plan this week to formally object to the certification of the Nov. 3 presidential election outcomes.

Since the vote, Trump and his attorneys have repeatedly asserted false claims of voter fraud and blamed, with out proof, that his loss to Biden was as a consequence of widespread irregularities. But his insistence that the election was stolen has led to some hypothesis he may in some way use the navy to stay in workplace previous Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

The ten signatories made it clear that any effort to contain U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take the nation “into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory.”

They wrote, “Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.”

Former Defense Secretary Perry, who served below President Bill Clinton, wrote on Twitter that the concept for the assertion originated with Cheney, a Republican who served below President George W. Bush as vp, and President George H.W. Bush as secretary of protection.

“Each of us swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We did not swear it to an individual or a party,” Perry tweeted reiterating the op-ed’s strains.

At the op-ed’s conclusion, the previous secretaries additionally appeared to handle Biden’s claims that his transition group has confronted roadblocks put up by the Trump White House in assembly Pentagon leaders forward of his inauguration.

“Acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller and his subordinates — political appointees, officers and civil servants — are each bound by oath, law and precedent to facilitate the entry into office of the incoming administration, and to do so wholeheartedly,” they wrote. “They must also refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team.”