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In his new ebook “A Sacred Oath,” launched earlier this week, Mark T. Esper, the previous protection secretary, revealed that President Donald J. Trump in 2020 had floated the concept of launching missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs” and requested why the army couldn’t “simply shoot” racial justice protesters in Washington within the legs.
Mr. Esper additionally described his considerations that Mr. Trump would possibly misuse the army throughout the 2020 election, for instance by asking troopers to grab poll containers.
On Monday, when a Fox Information host requested if he thought President Trump “was a menace to democracy,” Mr. Esper was blunt.
“I feel that given the occasions of Jan. 6, given how he has undermined the election outcomes, he incited individuals to come back to D.C., stirred them up that morning and did not name them off, to me that threatens our democracy,” he stated.
“So, sure?” requested the host, Bret Baier.
Mr. Esper replied: “What else are you able to conclude, Bret?”
That remark, from a person who has additionally served as secretary of the Military and chief of employees of the conservative Heritage Basis, was seen by some as a startlingly direct condemnation. However Mr. Esper was not the primary former Trump administration official to transcend criticisms of President Trump’s temperament or particular insurance policies to say he posed a menace to American democracy itself.
Here’s a compilation of feedback by Mr. Esper and different former officers, made throughout and after President Trump’s time period in workplace.
MARK T. ESPER, secretary of protection (July 2019-November 2020)
“It was a really troubling occasion. The second, it was an revolt, an try to overturn a free and truthful election and to stop the peaceable switch of energy. And it [sic] was proper to be impeached.”
— Interview with Judy Woodruff, “PBS NewsHour,” Could 6, commenting on the Jan. 6 revolt
STEPHANIE GRISHAM, White Home press secretary and communications director (July 2019-April 2020)
“Everyone’s exhibiting their fealty to them, he’s on his revenge tour to individuals who dared to vote for impeachment. I wish to simply warn individuals, as soon as he takes workplace, if he have been to win, he doesn’t have to fret about re-election anymore, he might be about revenge, he’ll in all probability have some fairly draconian insurance policies.”
— Interview on “Good Morning America,” Oct. 4, 2021, wherein she additionally stated she would urge Mr. Trump “to not run” in 2024
MILES TAYLOR, chief of employees, Division of Homeland Safety (February 2019-September 2019) and writer of the anonymously printed ebook “A Warning”
“I’m nonetheless astounded by the numerous Trump officers who privately agreed with me that he was a menace to democracy but *nonetheless* stay silent. Why?”
— Twitter, June 11, 2021
JOHN F. KELLY, secretary of homeland safety (January 2017-July 2017) and White Home chief of employees (July 2017-January 2019)
“What occurred on Capitol Hill yesterday is a direct results of his poisoning the minds of individuals with the lies and the frauds.”
— Interview with Jake Tapper, CNN, Jan. 7, 2021
H.R. MCMASTER, former nationwide safety adviser (February 2017-April 2018)
“It’s a present to our adversaries, who wish to shake our confidence in who we’re, shake our confidence in our democratic ideas and establishments and processes.”
— Interview with Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press,” Sept. 27, 2020, commenting on President Trump’s refusal to decide to a peaceable switch of energy if he misplaced the election
JOHN R. BOLTON, former nationwide safety adviser (April 2018-Sept. 2019)
“The priority I’ve, talking as a conservative Republican, is that after the election is over, if the president wins, the political constraint is gone. And since he has no philosophical grounding, there’s no telling what is going to occur in a second time period.”
— Interview with Martha Raddatz, ABC Information, June 21, 2020, wherein he additionally stated President Trump posed a “hazard for the republic”
JAMES N. MATTIS, secretary of protection (January 2017-January 2019)
“Once I joined the army, some 50 years in the past, I swore an oath to help and defend the Structure. By no means did I dream that troops taking that very same oath could be ordered beneath any circumstance to violate the constitutional rights of their fellow residents — a lot much less to supply a weird picture op for the elected commander in chief, with army management standing alongside.”
“We all know that we’re higher than the abuse of govt authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Sq.. We should reject and maintain accountable these in workplace who would make a mockery of our Structure.”
— Assertion printed by The Atlantic, June 3, 2020, following the clearing of protesters from Lafayette Sq. in Washington, D.C.
REX W. TILLERSON, former secretary of state (February 2017-March 2018)
“If our leaders search to hide the reality, or we as individuals develop into accepting of other realities which can be not grounded in info, then we as Americans are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom.”
“If we don’t as Individuals confront the disaster of ethics and integrity in our society and amongst our leaders in each the private and non-private sector — and regrettably at instances even the nonprofit sector — then American democracy as we all know it’s coming into its twilight years.”
— Graduation speech at Virginia Navy Institute, Could 16, 2018
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