Trump warned not to involve military
Ten ex-Pentagon chiefs have penned a brutal takedown of Donald Trump, telling him the time to question election results is over.
Ten ex-Pentagon chiefs including heavyweight Dick Cheney have delivered a massive smackdown to Donald Trump, telling him the time to question election results is over.
The extraordinary rebuke was delivered in a stinging opinion piece published in The Washington Post, by the former defence secretaries including two who worked for Trump.
Bush administration defence secretary Dick Cheney was among those behind the article, which tells Trump and other Republicans to back off from their unfounded claims of ballot box fraud.
The Post piece’s authors include former Trump appointees Jim Mattis and Mark T Esper, and every living Pentagon chief dating back to Cheney, who served under the late President George HW Bush and was George W Bush’s vice president.
It was published on Sunday evening ahead of an expected challenge on Wednesday to the US Electoral College’s formal vote certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Despite Trump’s repeated failed attempts to overturn the election results in court challenges, Republican efforts continue and concern has been high that he might call on the military to keep him in office.
“Our elections have occurred,” the article says. “Recounts and audits have been conducted. “Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted.
“The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.”
The 10 authors described a plan to involve the military in disputing the vote as “dangerous”.
“There’s no role for the US military in determining the outcome of a US election,” they wrote.
“Efforts to involve the US armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory.
“Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.”
The opinion piece, whose authors include both Democrats and Republicans, comes after a report alleging Trump discussed possibly invoking martial law, which he has dismissed as “fake news”.
However a former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn did suggest on TV that Trump could declare martial law and use the military to stage a new election.
This Wednesday January 6 is usually a formality held precisely two weeks before the inauguration of the incoming president when Congress gathers in joint session to count electoral college votes already certified by each state.
This year it promises to be anything but, with protests and rallies egged on by Donald Trump, who is calling on thousands of supporters to fill the streets of the nation’s capital in mass protest of his defeat.
“The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C., will take place at 11.00am on January 6th,” Trump tweeted, “Locational details to follow. StopTheSteal!”
A coalition of Republican senators has announced plans to try and have formal certification blocked and the vote subverted.
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