Retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman is demanding Chairman of Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley resign if he did go behind President Trump's back to speak to China
Alexander Vindman is calling on Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to resign if the claims in a new book are true that he went behind then-President Donald Trump's back to promise China to warn them if the U.S. planned to attack.
'If this is true GEN Milley must resign,' the retired lieutenant colonel tweeted on Tuesday along with an article claiming the new book 'Peril' reveals Milley was fearful Trump might spark war with China in the wake of his November election defeat to Joe Biden.
'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,' Vindman tweeted. 'You can't simply walk away from that.'
Reports of the details of the book, set to hit shelves on September 21, reveal that Milley made secret calls to his counterpart in Beijing while Trump was president.
Many are claiming Milley was wrong to circumvent the president, and are calling on Milley to step down from as top military officer.
Retired Lieutenant Colonel Buzz Patterson, an aide during Bill Clinton's administration who protected the 'nuclear football,' said it was not Milley's job to make decisions in a civilian-controlled military.
'As a former carrier of the nuclear football, this is simply unconscionable,' Patterson tweeted.
'The military doesn't get to make this call in a civilian controlled system. Milley needs to resign immediately.'
In a second tweet he wrote: I'm outraged and every veteran and active duty member should be too! Each and every one of us were educated and drilled to always respect the chain. The CJCS violated that and usurped the authority of the commander in chief for political purposes. He jeopardized our security.'
Retired Colonel Rob Maness tweeted: 'If every veteran serving in the US Congress isn't calling Milley out and demanding his resignation and court martial, they deserve a primary opponent.'
He also responded to Vindman's tweet in a separate post where he said: 'Resignation is not enough.'
'These actions demand a public court martial proceeding,' Maness insisted.
Excerpts from 'Peril', which were published on Tuesday, detail that Milley sought to assure in calls with General Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army in China that the U.S. was not about to launch strikes.
In one call he said he would use backchannels to alert his counterpart if an attack were imminent.
The details triggered a wave of condemnation from Republicans who accused Milley of treason.
Senator Marco Rubio wrote a letter to President Biden demanding that he fire Milley 'immediately' for working to 'actively undermine' Trump.
The book's revelations triggered a wave of concern that Milley had violated the chain of command, endangering national security and breaking norms of civilian control of the military
Republicans were furious over reports of Milley circumventing Trump to promise China he would warn them of any impending U.S. attack
'[Milley] 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),' he wrote in the letter.
'These actions by General Milley demonstrate a clear lack of sound judgement, and I urge you to dismiss him immediately.'
He added: 'General Milley has attempted to rationalize his reckless behavior by arguing that what he perceived as the military's judgement was more stable than its civilian commander. You must immediately dismiss General Milley. America's national security and ability to lead in the world are at stake.'
Republican Louisiana Senator John Kennedy said Milley 'should resign' if he negotiated with his Chinese counterpart and undermined Trump.
He told Fox Primetime host Lawrence Jones: 'You give me about 15 minutes with Gen. 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.'
On the other hand, former Navy senior chief petty officer and intelligence expert Malcolm Nance praised Milley for 'defending the Constitution' in bypassing the president to speak and make promises to a foreign adversary.
'My Take: #GeneralMilley is a true Patriot who defended the Constitution at its moment of greatest need,' Nance tweeted. 'He took steps to ensure no UNLAWFUL orders would be followed which could lead to national catastrophe by a mad man. He is a #Hero'.
Milley phoned his Chinese counterpart to give reassurances two days after the January 6 Capitol riot and cautioned US military leaders amid fears Trump might attack to keep power. Trump accused him of treason
Fox News host Tucker Carlson slammed Milley as 'treasonous'.
'How do you describe this? 'Deep state' isn't strong enough. It's treason. It's a crime,' he said.
'To those who say they're worried about authoritarianism coming in America, well, it's here,' Carlson said. 'That's what this is. Authoritarian government. Government by unelected, unaccountable leaders willing to use violence to preserve their rule.'
An angry Trump said Milley was 'making it up' that he was concerned about a China attack in an attempt to distract from his own role in the bungled Afghanistan withdrawal.
'I think he's trying to just get out of his incompetent withdrawal out of Afghanistan, the worst, the dumbest thing that anybody's seen,' Trump said. 'Probably the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to our country.'
The former president repeated his frequent condemnation of the Biden administration's handling of Afghanistan before returning the allegations in the new book, excerpts of which were published by CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post .
Trump said: 'Milley made it up. He made this story about me attacking China.'
'Think of it, I'm going to attack China. What's the reason exactly, other than that they screw a certain trade?' he continued. 'You don't attack them for that.'
He described Milley's alleged behavior as 'a disgrace.'
'He was going to inform them when that will take place so they could be prepared,' Trump said. 'That is a treasonous statement and I cannot tell you how many people called up about it.'
Trump named Milley to the top military post in 2018, where he will serve until 2022.
Their relationship, however, quickly soured and details of their clashes have seeped into public view with publication of several accounts of the final days of the Trump presidency.
The upcoming book also detailed that Ivanka Trump told her father three times to stop pedaling election fraud claims as he watched the Capitol riot unfold on TV on January 6.
'Let this thing go,' Donald Trump's eldest daughter and then-senior adviser said at the time. 'Let it go.'
The book 'Peril' also detailed that retired General Keith Kellogg, who was serving as Vice President Mike Pence's national security adviser at the time, told Trump he should send a
