Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, who has started to face mounting allegations that he is turning the military into a “woke” institution, allegedly snapped at a top Trump White House adviser during the left-wing riots last year after the adviser warned President Trump that cities were being turned into war zones.
The allegations are made in a new book by a Wall Street Journal reporter who released excerpts to CNN, which reported:
During one Oval Office debate, senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller chimed in, equating the scenes unfolding on his television to those in a third-world country and claiming major American cities had been turned into war zones.
“These cities are burning,” Miller warned, according to the excerpts.
The comment infuriated Milley, who viewed Miller as not only wrong but out of his lane, Bender writes, noting the Army general who had commanded troops in Iraq and Afghanistan spun around in his seat and pointed a finger directly at Miller.
“Shut the f–k up, Stephen,” Milley snapped, according to the excerpts.
Milley ignited controversy this week when he was pressed during congressional testimony about U.S. soldiers allegedly being exposed to Critical Race Theory, an ideology with roots in Marxism that has come under fire for promoting racism. Milley said that “it’s important actually for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read.”
“And I want to understand white rage and I’m white, and I want to understand it. So what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the constitution of the United States of America?” Milley said. “What caused that? I want to find that out. I want to maintain an open mind here, and I do want to analyze it.”
Milley, who said that he has read the writings of various communist leaders, found it “offensive” that he was being accused of turning the military “woke” because “we’re studying some theories that are out there.”
CNN’s report on the book from the WSJ reporter claimed that Trump encouraged law enforcement and the military to get violent toward “civil rights protesters.” CNN reported:
The President would highlight videos that showed law enforcement getting physical with protesters and tell his administration he wanted to see more of that behavior, the excerpts show.
“That’s how you’re supposed to handle these people,” Trump told his top law enforcement and military officials, according to Bender. “Crack their skulls!” Trump also told his team that he wanted the military to go in and “beat the f–k out” of the civil rights protesters, Bender writes. “Just shoot them,” Trump said on multiple occasions inside the Oval Office, according to the excerpts.
A review of Trump’s remarks from last summer, as the violent riots were happening across the U.S., shows that Trump encouraged peaceful protest but spoke out strongly against violence and looting.
“We cannot allow the righteous cries and peaceful protestors to be drown out by an angry mob,” Trump said during a June 1 speech in the Rose Garden at the White House. “The biggest victims of the rioting are peace loving citizens in our poorest communities and as their president, I will fight to keep them safe. I will fight to protect you. I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters. But in recent days, our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa and others.”
“A number of state and local governments have failed to take necessary action to safeguard their residents,” Trump continued. “Innocent people have been savagely beaten like the young man in Dallas, Texas, who was left dying on the street or the woman in upstate New York, viciously attacked by dangerous thugs. Small business owners have seen the dreams utterly destroyed. New York’s finest have been hit in the face with bricks, brave nurses who have battled the virus are afraid to leave their homes. A police precinct has been overrun here in the nation’s Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial and the World War II Memorial have been vandalized. One of our most historic churches was set a blaze. A federal officer in California, an African American enforcement hero was shot and killed. These are not acts of peaceful protest, these are acts of domestic terror. The destruction of innocent life and the spilling of innocent blood is an offense to humanity and a crime against God.”
During the speech, Trump added, “Today I have strongly recommended to every governor to deploy the national guard in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets, mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled.”