Milley defends call to Chinese at end of Trump presidency
U.S. Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, Joint Chiefs of Staff[U.S. Army photo by Monica King]
WASHINGTON (AP) – The top U.S. military officer has told Congress that he knew former President Donald Trump wasn’t planning to attack China and it was his job to reassure the Chinese of that fact in phone calls that have triggered outrage from some lawmakers. Army Gen. Mark Milley is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
On Tuesday, Milley delivered a full-throated defense of two calls he made to his Chinese counterpart, saying he was responding to “concerning intelligence” that China was worried about a U.S. attack.
Details of Milley’s calls were first aired in excerpts from the recently released book “Peril” by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.