Milley Defends Calls with Chinese Counterpart, Pelosi, and Acting on Trump Nuke Fears

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley on Tuesday addressed for the first time publicly allegations from a recently published book, Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

The book, published last week, alleges Milley had two backchannel calls with his Chinese counterpart on October 30, 2020, and January 8, 2021, to reassure him the United States was not going to attack China and if it was, he would give China a heads-up. Another allegation was that Milley held a meeting with senior military leaders and told them not to follow orders from Trump unless he was personally notified.

Milley defended the calls, saying, “I routinely communicated with my counterpart, Gen. Li, with the knowledge and coordination of civilian oversight.”

“These military-to-military communications at the highest level are critical to the security of the United States in order to deconflict military actions, manage crisis and prevent war between great powers that are armed with the world’s most deadliest weapons,” he continued.

Milley said the calls were coordinated “before and after” with then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller’s staffs, and a readout was provided to the interagency. – READ MORE