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A profitable marketing campaign to have all 10 residing former U.S. secretaries of protection signal a letter warning President Donald Trump to not contain the navy in his grievances over the election outcomes came about between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, stated former ambassador and protection official Eric Edelman.
“Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory,” the previous secretaries wrote within the letter, which was revealed as an op-ed by the Washington Post.
Edelman drafted and orchestrated the letter in session with former Vice President Dick Cheney, himself a former secretary of protection, together with assist from former State Department adviser Eliot Cohen.
Cheney instructed Edelman he would signal the letter if he might get different former secretaries to hitch in, Edelman instructed ABC News on Monday. Edelman reached out to the Post and received all 10 secretaries so as to add their names by Friday, he stated.
The motivation and timing for the letter was multifarious, Edelman instructed ABC News.
“There’s the firing of Esper right after the election, there’s the installation of this cadre of political appointees around (acting Secretary of Defense Chris) Miller there, there’s the rush for the exit in Afghanistan,” Edelman stated, additionally citing a reported try by the Trump administration to separate U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency final month in addition to Trump’s controversial name with Georgia’s secretary of state on Saturday.
Edelman additionally stated feedback made by former nationwide safety adviser Michael Flynn about the potential for Trump invoking martial legislation to rerun the election in battleground states raised issues.
In a Newsmax interview in mid-December, Flynn detailed what he thought-about Trump’s navy choices. While Flynn claimed he was not advocating for these choices to be exercised, and that constitutional processes should be adopted, simply weeks earlier he tweeted a company’s press launch calling for “limited martial law” to carry a brand new election.
A former U.S. official who helped coordinate the letter stated the 2 signatories who served in the course of the Trump administration, Mark Esper and retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, had some reservations earlier than including their names to the op-ed.
“I think Secretary Mattis for good reasons was a little reticent,” the previous official stated. “He understandably feels that he as a retiree is still covered by the (Uniform Code of Military Justice), and you know, retired officers should not be criticizing the commander in chief, and they’re not supposed to do that.”
The former official instructed ABC News he got here round after being persuaded by others concerned within the venture “that he needed to think about this not as ‘former Marine four-star general officer Jim Mattis,’ but as ‘former Secretary of Defense Mattis.'”
Esper, who was ousted by Trump after the presidential election, was involved about his participation wanting like private retribution, however rapidly determined to hitch the opposite former Pentagon chiefs, the official stated.
Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator who served as secretary of protection underneath President Barack Obama, instructed ABC News Monday that he deliberated earlier than including his title to the op-ed to make certain it would not be “making more out of something than maybe there really is.”
Hagel stated he determined Trump’s actions and rhetoric aimed toward overturning the outcomes of the election posed a big sufficient threat.
“I’m not overly concerned, but the fact is we have a president who has acted erratically, irresponsibly, and I think put our country in danger in many situations over the last four years,” he instructed ABC News.
Former Defense Secretary William Perry stated in a tweet Sunday that “Each of us swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution; that oath does not change according to party designation.”
Robert Gates, secretary of protection underneath each Presidents George W. Bush and Obama, signed on with out reservation when approached by Edelman, who served as underneath secretary of protection for coverage throughout Gates’ time on the Pentagon, in line with a spokesman for the previous secretary.
The letter concluded with a plea to the Defense Department to make sure a peaceable and easy switch of energy.
“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,” the letter stated. “They must also refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team.”
Edelman stated this part was in response President-elect Joe Biden not too long ago accusing political leaders on the Pentagon of “obstruction.”
Miller pushed again on these claims in a press release final Monday.
“The Department of Defense has conducted 164 interviews with over 400 officials, and provided over 5,000 pages of documents — far more than initially requested by Biden’s transition team. DOD’s efforts already surpass those of recent administrations with over three weeks to go and we continue to schedule additional meetings for the remainder of the transition and answer any and all requests for information in our purview,” Miller stated.
Some of the language within the letter instantly mirrored feedback from present protection officers, together with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who’ve every stated, earlier than and after the election, that the navy ought to play no half in dealing with election disputes.
“There is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election,” McCarthy stated in a Dec. 22 assertion.
That line was quoted with out attribution in Sunday’s op-ed.
The different former secretaries who signed the letter are Ashton Carter, Leon Panetta, William Perry and Donald Rumsfeld.
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