Trump’s last Pentagon chief says Jan. 6 ‘felt like combat’ but was not an ‘insurrection’
Insurrection #Insurrection
Former acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, whose tenure included the infamous Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, described that day as having “felt like combat,” though he added it “was far from anything resembling an ‘insurrection.'”
Miller, 57, whom then-President Donald Trump appointed in November days after the election, provided his thoughts in his new book, Soldier Secretary: Warnings from the Battlefield & the Pentagon about America’s Most Dangerous Enemies, which was released on Tuesday, and in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
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“Yes, the riot at the Capitol on January 6 was stupid and criminal and an absolute disgrace. But it was far from anything resembling an ‘insurrection,’ or, as the Democrat slogan repeated ad nauseam suggests, an ‘attack on our democracy,'” he wrote, adding that Jan. 6 “felt like combat again. It was stressful, because combat always is, but I also felt completely comfortable and in control.”
He elaborated on that comment in an interview, saying, “The point I was trying to make was from a leadership perspective, it felt very familiar the crisis situation and not having enough information and having to make decisions based on kind of inaccurate and maybe just not enough information,” later writing, “The Republic was not going to fall because a bunch of yahoos stormed the Capitol.”
Miller said in the book that then-Vice President Mike Pence was “absolutely unfazed” on Jan. 6, even after being whisked away by the Secret Service from the mob of Trump supporters who broke through police lines and interrupted the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Trump. Comparatively, he wrote that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “was in a state of total nuclear meltdown,” while Senate leaders Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Majority leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) “took turns hyperventilating into the phone.”
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“Do I blame a bunch of geriatrics for acting like a bunch of geriatrics? Of course not. But do I judge them for it? You’re damned right I do,” he added. “Most of all, I resent that we are ruled by a bunch of geriatrics that ruthlessly and selfishly maintain their holds on power and refuse to develop the next generation of leaders.”
When asked about what he’d do differently if he could go back to a week before the riot, the Afghanistan and Iraq war veteran brought up “bureaucratic communication impediments” that factored into the preemptive planning in the days before Jan. 6.
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Tags: January 6, News, Defense, National Security, Congress, Department of Defense, Pentagon
Original Author: Mike Brest
Original Location: Trump’s last Pentagon chief says Jan. 6 ‘felt like combat’ but was not an ‘insurrection’