Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to be court-martialed on Tuesday over phone calls Milley allegedly had with his Chinese counterparts last year assuring them he would warn them if President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. strike on China.
According to excerpts from a new book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday, Milley held a phone call with a Chinese counterpart on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the 2020 U.S. presidential election between then-President Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Milley held a second call took place on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the storming of the United States Capitol.
In one of the phone calls, Milley allegedly said, “General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.”
Paul tweeted, “I don’t care what you think of President Trump, the Chairman of the JCOS working to subvert the military chain of command and collude with China is exactly what we do not accept from military leaders in our country. He should be court martialed if true.”
“Couple that with his inept handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and it is clear General Milley is no longer fit to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and should be removed immediately,” Paul added, referencing the recent withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, which saw 13 U.S. service members killed in a suicide bomb attack during civilian evacuation efforts.
Earlier in the day on Tuesday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote to President Joe Biden, calling for him to fire Milley. Rubio
“I write with grave concern regarding recent reporting that General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, worked to actively undermine the sitting Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces and contemplated a treasonous leak of classified information to the Chinese Communist Party in advance of a potential armed conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” Rubio wrote. “These actions by General Milley demonstrate a clear lack of sound judgement, and I urge you to dismiss him immediately.”
“General Milley has attempted to rationalize his reckless behavior by arguing that what he perceived as the military’s judgement as more stable than its civilian commander,” Rubio added. “It is a dangerous precedent that could be asserted at any point in the future by General Milley or others. It threatens to tear apart our nation’s longstanding principle of civilian control of the military.”
