In a surprise statement Tuesday afternoon, retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman (US Army) strongly suggested that Gen. Mark Milley should resign as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Vindman was reacting to excerpts from a new book in which Milley is reported to have called a counterpart in China following his own conclusion that President Trump was unstable following the 2020 elections last November.
“If this is true, GEN Milley must resign,” tweeted Vindman, a former National Security Council staffer who testified before Congress about a phone call in which President Trump sought damaging information on Joe Biden from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
His testimony provided one of the articles of impeachment against the then-President in 2020.
Regarding the published reports about “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Vindman tweeted that Milley “usurped civilian authority, broke the chain of command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian authority over the military.”
According to “Peril,” Milley took extraordinary and secret steps two days after the January 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol to limit Trump’s power to order a nuclear strike. He specifically told his subordinates at a closed-door meeting that “no matter what you are told, you do the procedure, you do the process, and I am part of the process.”
Woodward and Costa write that the general also spoke with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and most surprisingly, communicated through a back channel with a high-ranking general in China to let him know what he was doing.
The authors concede that Milley may have exceeded his authority. Vindman clearly believes he did.
For his testimony which led to his early retirement from the Army, Vindman has been universally hailed as a hero by Democrats. He has been recently mentioned for appointment by President Biden to the still-vacant ambassadorship to his native Ukraine.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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