NP - 1/6 Insurrection Fun Facts #2

[David Morris]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/the-5-biggest-bombshells-in-the-woodward-costa-book

#2:  Senior US Gov Members Feared  a Coup

In November 2020, CIA Director Gina Haspel warned Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairman Mark Milley: “We are on the way to a right-wing coup.”

Haspel’s comments came amid general worry during the transition period that
Trump would start a war as a way to distract from his loss in the
presidential election, or to foment a crisis big enough so that he would
somehow stay in power.

On Jan. 8, acting out of what the book reportedly describes as shock and
fear due to the insurrection, Gen. Milley purportedly gathered a group of
senior military officers to “review the procedures for launching nuclear
weapons.”

The President had the authority to order a launch, but Milley also had to
be involved, the book reports the JCT chair as saying. Milley reportedly
looked each officer gathered in the eye and asked them to confirm that they
understood.

By law, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff does not have command
authority.

Milley also reportedly called his Chinese counterpart Li Zuocheng twice to
reassure him that the U.S. was not about to attack.

The first call reportedly took place on Oct. 30, during which Milley said:
“If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not
going to be a surprise.”


The second call took place on Jan. 8, during which Milley addressed the
chaos of the insurrection and reassured Beijing that Trump would not attack
China.

““Things may look unsteady,” the New York Times reported
<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/14/us/politics/peril-woodward-book-trump.html>
Milley
as saying, “but that’s the nature of democracy, General Li.”

In conversations with senior staff, Milley reportedly likened Jan. 6 to the
1905 Russian Revolution, which was put down by the Tsar but presaged the
successful 1917 revolutions that overthrew the country’s government.

“What you might have seen was a precursor to something far worse down the
road,” the book quotes him as saying.