Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, in response to the reports of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley’s actions as reported by the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, said on his talk show last night that in fact “there was a ‘coup’ in progress” that came not from the right, but from “a constellation of unelected government employees, loyal above all to the Democratic Party and the permanent class in Washington....”
Furthermore, by going to the senior officers in the National Military Command Center and demanding that they be loyal to him “Milley was seizing personal control of America’s nuclear arsenal.” As a result, “Civilian control of the military was over. Mark Milley was in charge.”
“If this is true, this is one of the scariest things that has happened in this country,” Carlson said. “To those who say they’re worried about authoritarianism coming in America, well, it’s here. That’s what this is. Authoritarian government. Government by unelected, unaccountable leaders willing to use violence to preserve their rule. That’s what this book describes.”
In the middle of this is retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, long a critic of the military establishment, who was an advisor to President Trump on foreign policy. Carlson reported that Macgregor wrote a memo advising Trump to get the U.S. military out of Afghanistan. “According to Woodward and Costa, that memo is one of the reasons Mark Milley decided to organize a coup,” Carlson reports.
Macgregor, who appeared on Carlson’s show, apparently did not focus on the policy issue, stressing instead that Milley’s role is as senior military advisor to the President and has no command authority. Under the Constitution, the President is the sole commander-in-chief. “The chairman [of the JCS] is not in position to order anyone in the armed forces to say or do anything. He can’t do it. He is preeminently the senior military advisor to the President. That’s what he is, so in theory, before he would make such a phone call [to his Chinese counterpart] he would discuss the subject of the phone call with the President, the commander in chief,” said Macgregor. “He certainly would not do something without coordinating with the National Security Advisor and the Secretary of State, because this is beyond Defense. This is a foreign policy statement that he is making. These are important things to understand.
“[Milley] violated the law, if this turns out to be true. We really need to hear from him – Congress needs to bring him over, he needs to be placed under oath and answer questions in front of the Senate about this entire affair.”
Macgregor added that another aspect of the scenario is the fact the President cannot act totally independently in launching a nuclear weapon, as critics may have feared, but instead must engage in a “consultative process.” However, that process does not include Milley as JCS chairman, but instead the Pentagon chief and the “Strategic Command.”
Macgregor further stated that Milley, who continues in his role as chairman under President Joe Biden, could have resigned his post if he felt so strongly that Trump was reckless or whatever the adjective might be.
The Woodward-Costa book, Peril, has also sparked other responses of concern about the implications for civilian control of the military. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio sent a letter to Biden demanding that he fire Milley right away. “General Milley has attempted to rationalize his reckless behavior by arguing that what he perceived as the military’s judgment was more stable than its civilian commander,” Rubio wrote. “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.”
Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy called on Milley to resign if the story turns out to be true. “Well, yes, yes,” Kennedy responded when asked by Fox Primetime host Lawrence Jones if Milley should resign. “But these are all allegations and this is still America,” Kennedy continued. “You give me about 15 minutes with General Milley under oath, in front of a committee of the United States Senate, and I will get to the truth.
“If the truth is as alleged then, yes, he should resign.”
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman (ret.), a former National Security Council staffer on Europe, famous for testifying against Trump during the impeachment follies, also called on Milley to resign if the allegations are true. “If this is true GEN Milley must resign,” Vindman wrote on Twitter. “He usurped civilian authority, broke Chain of Command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military. It’s an extremely dangerous precedent. You can’t simply walk away from that.”
