The Pentagon has come below heavy scrutiny for its actions — and its inaction — on Jan. 6, 2021.
Most notably, the D.C. Nationwide Guard arrived on the Capitol greater than three and a half hours after the violence started. And it emerged this summer season that the Pentagon wiped the telephones of prime officers as they departed on the finish of the Trump administration, deleting key data from that day.
However in testimony given behind closed doorways to the Home committee investigating the assault on the Capitol, Army Gen. Mark Milley, the Protection Division’s prime uniformed officer, has helped shed some mild on what passed off on the Pentagon on Jan. 6 and within the days that adopted.
Throughout its blockbuster televised hearings, the Jan. 6 committee has performed quick audio clips of testimony by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees. The entire audio that has been launched to date was performed on the July 21 listening to, though among the snippets had been additionally previewed on June 9, the primary day of the hearings.
Extra testimony from Milley might come out when the hearings resume in September, as soon as Congress returns from its summer season recess.
Within the scraps of testimony that the committee has offered, Milley has addressed then-President Donald Trump’s conspicuous inaction, then-Vice President Mike Pence’s plea to activate the Nationwide Guard, and his personal cellphone calls with then-White Home Chief of Employees Mark Meadows within the aftermath of the assault.
Right here’s all of Milley’s testimony that has been launched to date.
Milley’s response to Trump’s habits on Jan. 6
In a snippet offered by Rep. Adam Kinziger, who was driving residence Trump’s refusal to behave in the course of the assaults on the Capitol, Milley defined his response to Trump’s habits.
“Yeah. You realize, commander in chief, you bought an assault happening on the Capitol of the US of America. And there’s nothing? No name? Nothing? Zero?” Milley mentioned.
Kinzinger, an Air Power veteran, added, “I can inform you that Normal Milley’s response to President Trump’s conduct is 100% right.”
It was Pence who referred to as to activate the Guard
Later within the July 21 listening to, Rep. Elaine Luria relied on testimony by Milley to show that it had been Vice President Mike Pence — and never Trump — who made efforts to safe the Capitol so it may resume its joint session, together with by calling army leaders.
Milley advised the committee:
“Vice President Pence? There have been two or three calls with Vice President Pence. He was very animated, and he issued very specific, very direct, unambiguous orders. There was no query about that.”
Pence’s orders had been ‘direct’ and ‘agency’
“[Pence] was — and I can provide the precise quotes, I assume, from a few of our file someplace — however he was very animated, very direct, very agency,” Milley mentioned.
“And to Secretary Miller, ‘get the army down right here, get the Guard down right here, put down this example,’ and so on.,” Milley added, paraphrasing Pence.
Christopher Miller, then the performing protection secretary, advised the D.C. Guard at 3:04 p.m. to deploy to the Capitol.
The Guard arrived on the scene at 5:40 p.m., after the violence had largely ended.
Milley refused to affix in on Trump’s narrative
Luria then launched a snippet of Milley describing a cellphone name he had with Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of employees.
“[Meadows] mentioned — that is from reminiscence. He mentioned, ‘We now have — now we have to kill the narrative that the vp is making all the selections. We have to set up the narrative that, you realize, that the president continues to be in cost and that issues are regular or secure or phrases to that impact.’ I instantly interpret that as politics, politics, politics,” Milley mentioned.
“Pink flag for me personally, no motion, however I keep in mind it distinctly,” he added. “And — and I don’t do political narratives.”
In accordance with latest reporting in The New Yorker, Milley has been particularly delicate to any look of politicization since he acquired criticism for marching in battle fatigues in a June 2020 photograph op with Trump after the president had the world forcibly cleared of Black Lives Matter protesters.
Trump was in a ‘darkish place’
The committee additionally offered testimony by administration officers who mentioned they had been disgusted by Trump’s response to the assault however didn’t resign as a result of they had been, in Kinzinger’s phrases, “sincerely frightened that leaving President Trump to his personal gadgets would put the nation at continued danger.”
Milley described calls he had with members of Trump’s inside circle, together with the White Home chief of employees and the secretary of state, to maintain tabs on the president.
“There was a few the calls the place, you realize, Meadows and/or Pompeo, however extra Meadows, you realize, how — how is the president doing?” Milley recalled. “Like, Pompeo would possibly say, ‘How’s the president doing?’ And Meadows would say, ‘Nicely, he’s in a very darkish place.’ Like right here’s one, for instance, on the seventh of January.”
Milley then quoted what Meadows advised him on that decision: “POTUS could be very emotional and in a nasty place.”
In non-public, Milley referred to those conversations as “land the airplane” calls, in response to latest reporting in The New Yorker.
Irene Loewenson is an editorial fellow at Navy Instances and Protection News. A local New Yorker, she is a latest graduate of Williams School, the place she was the editor-in-chief of the scholar newspaper.
