The newly release report on the January 6th, 2020 Capitol Riot and Insurrection makes it clear why Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller drug his feet when requested to deploy the National Guard to help defend the Capitol building and environs by Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
After Trump had attempted to evoke the Insurrection Act in June 2020 in response to the Black Lives Matter protests in D.C., and then insisted that Miller’s predecessor Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley accompany him on a photo op walk through Lafayette Park after the area had been cleared by police using tear gas and violence, Miller feared that putting Nation Guard Troops into the streets during the rioters march to and subsequent attack on the Capitol would play into Trump’s hand – allowing him to Nationalize the troops and use them to his own purpose:
(Parens mine)
“As a result of those experiences (June BLM protests) military officials were worried that putting troops on the ground seven months later, on Jan. 6, 2021, apart from the “optics” of the military being deployed during the final phase of a transfer of presidential power, could result in Trump issuing an “illegal order” to use them in a last-gasp attempt to stay in office.
District of Columbia officials, acting on Trump’s call for a “wild” protest in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, and the resulting social media chatter among extremist groups, on Dec. 31, 2020, asked for National Guard troops to staff Metro subway stops and block traffic at intersections. But Pentagon officials preferred not to deploy any troops at all and said that if they did end up agreeing to the request, no troops would be permitted closer to the U.S. Capitol complex than Ninth Street, nearly a mile away.
“The select committee recognizes that some at the [Defense Department] had genuine concerns, counseling caution, that President Trump might give an illegal order to use the military in support of his efforts to overturn the election,” the report states. It points out that Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller had told lawmakers in May 2021 testimony that he feared “the president would invoke the Insurrection Act to politicize the military in an antidemocratic manner” and that “no such thing was going to occur on my watch.”
Their fears of a coup attempt turned out to be well-founded. Knowing the military was not going to support his efforts, Trump instead turned to the mob he had assembled at a rally near the White House on Jan. 6 to march to the Capitol and pressure his own vice president into voiding his election loss and letting Trump remain in power. Even after he had been told that many of his followers in the rally crowd were armed, Trump nevertheless intended to accompany them to the Capitol, according to the committee, to get what he wanted.”
As we have learned lately, Trump even requested, prior to the rally and riot, that 10,000-20,000 thousand National Guard troops be assigned to serve as his personal retinue during what he envisioned as his triumphant march on the Capitol.
And, perhaps as a mechanism to allow himself to believe, and his supporters to think, that one of his own Cabinet officers had not defied him, Trump has of late warped and politicized the decision to not allow him his own personal insurrection Division, and blamed his lack of military support on then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
But as the report shows it was probably Miller that cut him off at the knee.
So, maybe the suggestions that Chris Miller was helping Trump by dragging his feet on deployment of the Guard are not accurate – that instead he worried that the seditionist Former Guy would use the Guard to his own purpose once they were on the street.
If so then perhaps Miller, instead of being a Trump lackey, was actually one of the heroes of that dark day.
If such is the case, I thank you sir.
I don’t buy it. I think he had a great lawyer help him craft a CYA line of bullshit to feed to Congress on this matter. First of all remember his Deputy was Kash Patel. Then remember he was put in his post during the transition – about at “lame duck” as you can get. But there’s more. He made some questionable (at best) decisions to withdraw deployments of various units around the world in trouble spots that risked hard-won progress on anti-terrorism work. And under his “leadership” the Pentagon refused to engage in forty or so meetings with the incoming Biden team. Miller claimed the agreement to “postpone” those meetings was mutual. The Biden Transition Team says that wasn’t the case.
I for one know who I believe and it’s NOT Chris Miller!
So, when it comes to deployment (or not) of the Guard to DC on Jan. 6 I think Miller, a former Green Beret was torn. Part of him (I believe) wanted to deploy AND have Trump do exactly what he supposedly feared – start issuing illegal orders. However, there still would have been a chain of command and Gen. Milly’s position was quite clear – and Milly would have quickly been on the communications channel (while heading across the river personally) and talking if only via phone to TV networks telling everyone Trump was issuing illegal orders. Had it gone down that way ugly doesn’t begin to describe what was already a situation uglier than the view up out of Trump’s fake gold toilet while Trump was sitting their shitting out his burnt steak!
Basically, Miller (I believe) kind of liked the idea of Trump having ten thousand (or more) Guard troops listening directly to him and maybe heading INTO the Capitol and the freaking House Chamber with him. BUT, he knew Milly had been laying down the law down the chain of command that from the highest officers on down that the military was to stay the fuck neutral, and that anything but support for the Constitutional process (and the changeover in Presidedents) would be adhered to – and that anything contrary to that would be dealt with severely. I believe Miller measured his influence against that of Milly and was afraid too many officers (and troops) would recognize a Trump attempt to lead them in a riot as the illegal order it would have been.
So Miller sat on the fence for hours. He wanted to see how things would play out and bad as it was, and since I suspect he probably had some knowledge of the plan (even if he didn’t know how real or not it was) figured the sideline was the best place to be. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d talked to a lawyer to establish his line of bullshit he’d later give to Congress well before Jan. 6.
But charging him would require more evidence than apparently the J6 Committee could get, and even the DOJ with subpoena power would still face the issue of “intent” which powerful (almost always white) defendants get to flaunt at trial. But I don’t believe or trust Miller and further than I can throw the entire fucking Pentagon!
Slippery, slimey RW, SHILLS & TRAITORS!
Denis, you captured my thoughts and beliefs succinctly. If Miller could have aided and abetted the orange diarrhea and come out clean, he would have.
Usually suspecting the most vile, evil, hypocritical act gets you closer to the mark with this bunch.