A successful campaign to get a letter signed to 10 former U.S. defense secretaries warning President Donald Trump not to implicate the military in his complaints about election results occurred between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Day, said former ambassador and defense officer Eric Edelman.
“Efforts to involve the U.S. military in resolving electoral disputes would lead us to dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional territory,” the former secretaries wrote in the letter, published by the Washington Post as an opinion.
Edelman drafted and orchestrated the letter in consultation with former Vice President Dick Cheney, himself a former secretary of defense, along with the help of former State Department adviser Eliot Cohen.
Cheney told Edelman he would sign the letter if he managed to join other former secretaries, Edelman told ABC News Monday. Edelman arrived at the Post and got the ten secretaries to add their names before Friday, he said.
The motivation and timing of the letter were multiple, according to Edelman on ABC News.
“There’s the cessation of Esper just after the election, there’s the installation of this group of nominated politicians around (Acting Secretary of Defense Chris) Miller there, there’s the rush for the exit to the ‘Afghanistan,’ said Edelman, who also cited an attempt by the Trump administration last month to split the U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, as well as Trump’s controversial call with the secretary Georgia state on Saturday.
Edelman also said comments made by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn about the possibility of Trump invoking martial law to re-run elections on battlefield states were of concern.
In a Newsmax interview in mid-December, Flynn detailed what he considered of Trump’s military options. Although Flynn stated that he did not advocate that these options be exercised and that constitutional processes be followed, a few weeks earlier. he tweeted press release from an organization calling for a “limited martial law” to hold new elections.
A former U.S. official who helped coordinate the letter said the two signatories who served during the Trump administration, Mark Esper and retired Navy General Jim Mattis, had some reservations before adding their names. in the opinion.
“I think Secretary Mattis for good reason was a little reluctant,” the former official said. “They understand that, as a retiree, he is still covered by the (Uniform Code of Military Justice), and as you know, retired officers should not criticize the commander in chief, and they are not supposed to.”
The ex-officer told ABC News that he came after being persuaded by other people involved in the project “that he needed to think about this not as” four-star Navy general officer Jim Mattis, “but as” ex-secretary of Mattis’ defense. “
Esper, who was ousted by Trump after the presidential election, was worried about his participation that seemed like personal retribution, but quickly decided to join the other former Pentagon chiefs, the official said.
Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator who served as secretary of defense under President Barack Obama, told ABC News Monday that he deliberated before adding his name to opinion to make sure he “wouldn’t do anything more. that maybe there really are. “
Hagel said he decided that Trump’s actions and rhetoric aimed at nullifying the election results posed a significant enough risk.
“I don’t care too much, but the fact is that we have a president who has acted irregularly, irresponsibly and I think he has endangered our country in many situations over the last four years,” he told ABC News.
Former Secretary of Defense William Perry said in a tweet Sunday that “Each of us took an oath to support and defend the Constitution; that oath does not change according to the designation of the party.”
Robert Gates, secretary of defense for both Presidents George W. Bush and Obama, signed unreservedly when he was addressed by Edelman, who served as secretary of defense policy during Gates’ time at the Pentagon, according to a spokesman for the ex-secretary. .
The letter concluded with a request to the Department of Defense to ensure a peaceful and smooth transfer of power.
“Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller and his subordinates (appointed politicians, officers, and officials) are required by oath, law, and precedent to facilitate the entry into office of the incoming administration and to do so. wholeheartedly, ”a letter told him. “They must also refrain from any political action that could undermine the election results or hinder the success of the new team.”
Edelman said the section responded to President-elect Joe Biden, who recently accused Pentagon political leaders of “obstruction.”
Miller denied the allegations in a statement Monday.
“The Department of Defense has conducted 164 interviews with more than 400 officials and provided more than 5,000 pages of documents, far more than initially requested by the Biden transition team. DOD’s efforts already exceed those of the administrations. recent with three weeks to go and we continue to schedule additional meetings for the rest of the transition and respond to any and all requests for information we have at our disposal, ”Miller said.
Some of the languages in the letter directly reflected the comments of current defense officers, including the chairman of the joint chief of staff, General Mark Milley, and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who have each said, before and after the election. , that the military should not play any part in resolving electoral disputes.
“There is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of a U.S. election,” McCarthy said in a Dec. 22 statement.
This line was cited without attribution to Sunday’s opinion.
The other former secretaries who signed the letter are Ashton Carter, Leon Panetta, William Perry and Donald Rumsfeld.