Leave military out of it, former defence
secretaries tell Trump
Unprecedented letter calls on voted-out president to
accept Joe Biden’s election victory amid growing fears over his behaviour
Among the signatories was James Mattis, who served as
defence secretary in the Trump administration
Julian
Borger in Washington
Mon 4 Jan
2021 01.16 GMT
All 10
former US defence secretaries still living, including two who worked for Donald
Trump, have called for the president and his supporters to accept he lost the
election and warned against attempts to involve the military in his
increasingly desperate efforts to overturn the result.
In an
unprecedented joint letter published in the Washington Post, the defence
secretaries addressed the worst fears of what could happen in 17 days of
Trump’s administration remaining before Joe Biden’s inauguration: an attempt by
Trump to foment a crises with the aim of triggering a military intervention in
his last-ditch struggle to hold on power.
“Efforts to
involve the US armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into
dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory,” the letter said.
“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.”
Among the
signatories were James Mattis and Mark Esper, who both served as defence
secretaries in the Trump administration. Esper openly contradicted Trump in
June by insisting there were no grounds for invoking the Insurrection Act,
which allows for the deployment of US troops on American streets in extreme
circumstances.
Dick
Cheney, defence secretary under George HW Bush, and vice-president to his son,
George W Bush, and Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary in the younger Bush’s
administration, also signed. The other signatories were William Perry and
William Cohen, defence secretaries in the Bill Clinton administration; Leon
Panetta, Chuck Hagel and Ashton Carter, who served under Barack Obama; and
Robert Gates, who served under both the younger Bush and Obama.
“Transitions,
which all of us have experienced, are a crucial part of the successful transfer
of power. They often occur at times of international uncertainty about US
national security policy and posture,” the former defence secretaries wrote.
“They can be a moment when the nation is vulnerable to actions by adversaries
seeking to take advantage of the situation.”
They called
on the current defence secretary, Christopher Miller, and his officials to
resume cooperation with the Biden transition team, who had complained their
briefings had been cut off and the Pentagon had ceased answering their
inquiries.
The
Washington Post quoted Eric Edelman, a former US ambassador and defence
official, as saying the genesis of the remarkable letter was a conversation he
had with Cheney about how the military might be used in coming days.
There are
concerns over unrest on Wednesday when a dozen Republican senators say they
will challenge the normally routine congressional ratification of the electoral
college result.
Trump has
urged his supporters to rally in Washington, tweeting: “Be there, will be
wild!” The far right Proud Boys are expected to be among the pro-Trump crowd in
the capital.
Cohen told
the Post he was concerned by the mention of the possibility of martial law by
the former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, especially after
Trump’s use of the military and other federal forces to remove protesters
outside the White House in June.
“It’s a
very dangerous course of action that needs to be called out before it happens,”
Cohen said.
“[It is] so
important to see the country’s secretaries of defence sending this message,”
wrote Risa Brooks, a Marquette University associate professor studying
civil-military relations and political violence. “The civilians who run the
military need to be front and centre in conveying this message to the public
and not leave it to the military alone.”
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