Generals WIN battle with Trump as 82nd Airborne soldiers are REMOVED from D.C.
Generals WIN battle with Trump as 82nd Airborne soldiers are REMOVED from D.C. after chairman of joint chiefs publicly slammed President and told his troops to 'uphold the Constitution'
- Soldiers with the 82nd Airborne division of the Army were ordered out of Washington, D.C. and back to Fort Bragg, North Carolina on Thursday night
- The about 200 active duty troops were kept on standby at bases near the nation's capital and were never called into the city in the midst of riots
- The move is a clear reversal after Donald Trump faced backlash for calling in the military to serve as backup should the National Guard need assistance
- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, former Army General John Allen and former Defense Secretary James Mattis all pushed back against Trump
- Milley told troops in a Thursday memo to 'uphold the Constitution'
- 'We all committed our lives to the idea that is America' after he defended protesters' right to assemble,' he added in pen at at the bottom of the letter
- Mattis and retired four-star General Allen both bashedTrump in separate op-eds
- They specifically called out police clearing Lafayette Park with tear gas and rubber bullets so Trump could visit a church across the street for a photo-op
- 'It may well signal the beginning of the end of the American experiment,' Allen said of the church visit where Trump held up his bible for photos
- 'Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people - does not even pretend to try,' Mattis wrote
By KATELYN CARALLE, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:00 EDT, 4 June 2020 | UPDATED: 20:52 EDT, 4 June 2020
Hundreds of combat soldiers with the 82nd Airborne were ordered to leave Washington, D.C, Thursday after retired generals and the nation's top officer rebuked Donald Trump over his use of the military.
Members of the elite unit had been deployed to the nation's capital to back up National Guard soldiers ordered onto the streets by Attorney General Bill Barr in a show of force.
The active duty soldiers will head back to base in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, a senior Defense official told NBC News, after Army General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley publicly told the nation's troops to 'uphold the Constitution' and said that the National Guard was under governors' control - pointedly not the president's.
The troops spent a week at bases near the city on standby as peaceful protests turned violent in the nation’s capital with instances of looting, arson and destruction – but they were never called into D.C. to respond to the civil unrest.
The order was suddenly reversed, however, after Defense Secretary Mark Esper made a visit to the White House Wednesday morning following a press conference where he attempted to distance himself from the infamous church photo-op.
The change also followed internal discussions Esper conducted at the Pentagon, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told the Associated Press.
It also followed a 10:00 a.m. order on Wednesday to draw down some of the 1,600 forces – including infantry members – who had been positioned outside Washington, D.C.
Trump is facing backlash for his decision to use the U.S. Military as backup against protesters following the death of George Floyd.
General Milley put himself at odds with the president in a Thursday memo where he told troops to 'defend the Constitution.’
He also asserted that the National Guard was not under federal control - as retired generals including former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis denounced the president's handling of the George Floyd protests.
Milley said in a letter to top military leaders that armed forces will continue to protect Americans’ right to ‘freedom of speech and peaceful assembly,’ as the president has called in troops to defend Washington, D.C.
'We all committed our lives to the idea that is America,' Milley hand-wrote in as an addition to the bottom of the letter. 'We will stay true to that and the American people.'
The letter represented an extraordinary public statement from the most senior U.S. military officer and was clearly directed at the Commander-in-Chief.
Coming after the words of Mattis, and two other former chairmen of the joint chiefs, it suggested serious misgivings by the military about Trump himself.
Milley's attempt to distance himself from the president comes as the general was recently rebuked by retired generals after he marched out of the White House as part of Trump's entourage for a photo-op in front of St. John's Episcopal Church while dressed in his combat uniform.
Some asserted if he was going to participate in the stunt, he should have worn his service or greens uniform.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper defended Milley's uniform choice, saying it was 'appropriate,' after a series of former military leaders voiced anger at both men's conduct and warned they were politicizing the military.
The most searing condemnation of Trump came from former Defense Secretary James Mattis, the four-star Marine general and Iraq hero, who issued his first ever open criticism of Trump in an opinion piece published in The Atlantic on Wednesday.
'Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people - does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,' Mattis said. Mattis also likened Trump's actions to the rhetoric used by Nazis – to 'divide and conquer' - saying he was the first president in his lifetime not to seek to unite Americans.
His lengthy condemnation of the president caused one Republican senator Lisa Murkowski to break ranks with Trump and say Mattis' statement was 'honest and necessary and overdue.'
When asked if she can still show support for the president, she said: 'I'm struggling with it.'
Despite the president insisting that a 'show of force' must be exhibited in Washington, D.C. to quell rioters and violent protesters, the scene was much more tame Tuesday and Wednesday night than previously, with more peaceful protests taking place across the nation. In D.C., local police said there were no arrests.
+
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley issued a public rebuke of Donald Trump in a Thursday memo where the told troops to 'uphold the Constitution' as the president called the military to defend Washington D.C. against George Floyd rioters
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06...1299001171.jpg
+28
In a handwritten note at the bottom of the memo, Milley reminded military leaders: 'We all committed our lives to the idea that is America' after he defended protesters' right to assemble
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06...1299001182.jpg
+28
Milley faced backlash from etired generals for marching out of the White House in his combat uniform rather than his service or greens uniform – meant for more formal settings like the White House or Capitol Hill
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06...1299001191.jpg
+28
His letter came after General John Allen (left) and former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (right), both retired four-star Marine generals, denounced the president's decision to call in the U.S. Military to assist with rioters
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06...1299001194.jpg
+28
Despite the president's steadily increasing demand for force to quell demonstrators, Wednesday night's protests across the country were widely peaceful, with few to no instances of violence, looting, rioting or arson, which riddled other days of protests
Retired Marine Corp four-star General John Allen lashed out at Trump in an op-ed Wednesday claiming his actions in the midst of violent nationwide riots over the death of George Floyd are 'shameful.'
Allen, who commanded the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan then was an envoy in the international effort against ISIS, insisted Trump's presidency could be the 'beginning of the end of American democracy.'
'The slide of the United States into illiberalism may well have begun on June 1, 2020,' Allen wrote in an op-ed published to ForeignPolicy.com. 'Remember the date. It may well signal the beginning of the end of the American experiment.'
The retired general is referencing the Monday, June 1 outing when Trump stepped outside the White House with an entourage of Secret Service, administration officials, aides and media, walked across Lafayette Park, which was clear of protesters minutes earlier by use of tear gas and rubber bullets, and arrived at St. John's Episcopal Church for a photo-op with his bible.
The stunt came in the midst of days-long peaceful and violent protests across the nation over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white cop in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Memorial Day.
Milley asserted in the memo that only the National Guard, a reservist unit of the Army, is responding to the riots at the activation of governors – and not the federal government.
'As members of the Joint Force – comprised of all races, colors, and creeds – you embody the ideals of our Constitution,' Milley wrote in the letter the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard and Space Force and Commandants of the Marine Corps and Coast Guard, as well as to the Commanders of the Combatant Commands.
'Please remind all of your troops and leaders that we will uphold the values of our nation, and operate consistent with national laws and out own high standards of conduct at all times,' he concluded.
Trump's Senate ally Lindsey Graham accused Mattis Thursday morning of 'buying into' the 'liberal media' narrative.
'To General Mattis, I think you're missing something here, my friend,' the senator from South Carolina told Fox & Friends 'You're missing the fact that the liberal media has taken every event in the last three and a half years and laid it at the presidency.'
'I'm not saying he's blameless,' Graham continued in rare partial criticism of Trump, 'but I am saying you're buying into a narrative that I think is quite frankly unfair.'
He conceded, however, that 'Mattis has the right to express himself because of his military service.
'General Mattis has the right to express himself because he's served the country over a long period of time put himself at risk for the nation,' Graham said. 'But the one thing I would tell General Mattis that from the time President Trump wakes up, to go to bed there's an effort to destroy his presidency.'
He also called out Trump's Monday walk from the White House, across Lafayette Park to St. John's Episcopal Church for a photo-op with his bible, claiming: 'The slide of the United States into illiberalism may well have begun on June 1, 2020'
+2
'[T]he president proclaimed himself the 'ally of peaceful protesters.' But, at that very moment, just a few hundred feet away across Lafayette Park, fully equipped riot police and troops violently, and without provocation, set upon the peaceful demonstrators there, manhandling and beating many of them, employing flash-bangs, riot-control agents, and pepper spray throughout,' Allen wrote
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...MOVED-D-C.html
