Republicans are now expressing “outrage” (that we suspect is faked, all to please Trump and his MAGA followers) over revelations from Bob Woodward’s new book “Peril” in which the authors note that Milley was in contact with the Chinese military about possible bad intelligence, they received regarding a “wag the dog theory” that Trump might try.
Seeing the danger, Milley contacted Chinese officials (along with Milley’s full staff on the call, as appropriate) to assure the Chinese that they have bad intelligence and there would be no “wag the dog” scenario under his watch. Milley would not allow a decision to nuke anyone, or do anything irresponsible about anything without it going through him, and he is in the chain of command. (The implication being that Milley would get in the way of a Trump nuke order.)
And that sent the monkeys flying. From Axios [1]:
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cited Woodward’s and Costa’s reporting in calling for President Biden to fire Milley, accusing him of working to “actively undermine the sitting Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces.“
“General Milley has attempted to rationalize his reckless behavior by arguing that what he perceived as the military’s judgement as more stable than its civilian commander,” Rubio said, calling that “a dangerous precedent” that “threatens to tear apart our nation’s longstanding principle of civilian control of the military.”
Maybe in normal circumstances, Rubio might have a legitimate concern. In this scenario, he needs to just suck it up and take it because he knows damned well why the situation was so dangerous.
This morning, Joe Scarborough went off on all Republicans screaming about Milley:
Of course, Republicans acting shocked, just absolutely shocked that phone calls would be made from generals and other people inside of an administration where a president was trying to overturn the results of a democratic election,” Scarborough said. “These people are children. It might help them to actually read history books and understand that this has happened before. It has happened at times when presidents were not in the best shape, as Donald Trump was not in good shape, I would say for his entire presidency, but especially after Jan. 6…
Sensible, Joe then got angry:
“They’re upset he’s calling a leader in China saying, don’t think you can take advantage of the United States of America, democracy can be chaotic but we’re strong, we’re solid,” he said. “We’re in good shape, nothing’s going to happen, we’re not going to act erratically, and you’re not going to take advantage of us. I’m sorry, this is something — Republicans don’t like this, this is something, are you so stupid, I just got to ask, are you so stupid, are you so ignorant of how things work that you don’t know that from time to time generals talk to generals? Diplomats talk to diplomats, and they send that message, hey, things look kind of crazy in the United States, don’t take advantage of this situation. Don’t take advantage of it, because we’re solid.”
To answer Joe’s question, no – they are not stupid. They simply know that this is infuriating Trump and so they have to act infuriated. They know this needed to be done, this is for the cameras only, period. In other words, it’s quite typical GOP/MAGA.
This is something you want a guy to be fired for?” Scarborough added. “Can you grow up a little bit? I’m asking, seriously, can you stop playing for your Twitter feed or the lowest common denominator, like in your district, because this is really about America’s national security, and I just, I’m absolutely fascinated by the fact that you’re attacking a general for telling China, you better not take advantage of us because the United States is strong, things get messy once in a while but that’s called democracy, something you don’t know anything about.”
NO, they cannot grow up a little or they wouldn’t be MAGAs.
.@JoeNBC [2] attacks Republicans criticizing Gen. Milley for usurping Trump: “Are you so stupid, I just got to ask, are you so stupid, are you so ignorant of how things work that you don’t know that from time to time generals talk to generals?" pic.twitter.com/hxUCxH6niD [3]
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 15, 2021 [4]
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