Then President Donald Trump urged top military and law enforcement officials to authorize violence against anti-racist protesters last year, telling his Attorney General and Joint Chiefs Chairman to “crack their skulls,” and “just shoot them.”
When then Attorney General Bill Barr and General Mark Milley pushed back, Trump said “well, shoot them in the leg—or maybe the foot. But be hard on them!”
The shocking revelations come from Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender, whose forthcoming book “Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost,” was obtained by CNN.
Bender says Trump was incensed by cable news footage of protests in Portland and Seattle in the wake of George Floyd’s May 2020 murder by a police officer. Trump told his team that he wanted the military to “beat the f–k out” of the demonstrators. He showed them clips of law enforcement officers using force at the protests and said, “That’s how you’re supposed to handle these people.”
Gen. Milley, according to Bender, was adamant in opposing the president’s demands, which were echoed by White House officials
At one point, senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller compared the scenes in Portland and Seattle to war zones. “The cities are burning,” he said.
Milley, who had commanded troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, spun around in his chair and pointed at Miller, “Shut the f–k up, Stephen.”
CNN describes Milley’s efforts to guide Trump away from violence:
Milley made a concerted effort to stay in Washington as much as possible during those final months. A significant concern for Milley at the time was how to advise Trump if he decided to invoke the Insurrection Act in the wake of civil unrest — a move that would have military force on the streets against civilians.
Miley insisted that the protests were a political issue, not a military one.
More from CNN:
Milley spotted President Abraham Lincoln’s portrait hanging just to the right of Trump and pointed directly at it, Bender writes.” That guy had an insurrection,” Milley said. “What we have, Mr. President, is a protest.”
Milley, who made a passionate defense of military open-mindedness when pressed on Critical Race Theory during a Congressional hearing earlier this week, has become an object of derision in conservative media.
On Thursday night, Fox News provocateur Tucker Carlson said of Milley, “Hard to believe that man wears a uniform. He’s that unimpressive,” adding: “He’s not just a pig, he’s stupid.”
(Milley graduated from Princeton and holds master’s degrees from Columbia University and the U.S. Naval War College.)
Milley, like Dr. Anthony Fauci before him, has tried to stay above partisan politics and cable news controversies while he executes one of the most complex jobs in American government.
His pushback on Trump is particularly relevant because the country has seen where Trump’s worst instincts could lead; the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol are among the most shocking episodes of domestic terrorism in a generation.
During his congressional testimony this week, Miley said, “What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out, and I want to maintain an open mind here, and I want to analyze it.”
