According to The New York Times, DoD officials told them that Pelosi told Democrats that she spoke Friday morning to Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.” She posted the “Dear colleague” letter on her website. A spokesman for Gen. Milley told reporters the chairman “answered her questions.”
This is widely seen as nothing short of an abuse of power by Pelosi. She is constitutionally limited to leading the legislative branch unless both the president and vice president are incapacitated or removed from office. In that case, she is third-in-line for the presidency. She jumped the shark in her fantasy to control the nation, Trump, and his supporters. A serious self-check is needed here.
Pelosi’s call to Gen. Milley is itself a violation of the separation of powers by seeking to inject herself into an executive-branch military decision. She cannot order military leaders to do anything. Her move is seen by some as an attempted coup trying to use the military to relieve President Trump of command.
From The New York Times:
“In a letter to House Democrats on Friday, Ms. Pelosi invoked the resignation of Richard M. Nixon amid the Watergate scandal, when Republicans prevailed upon the president to resign and avoid the ignominy of an impeachment, calling Mr. Trump’s actions a “horrific assault on our democracy.”’
“Ms. Pelosi also said she had spoken with Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about “preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes.”’
“A spokesman for General Milley, Col. Dave Butler, confirmed that the two had spoken and said the general had “answered her questions regarding the process of nuclear command authority.”’
“But some Defense Department officials have privately expressed anger that political leaders seemed to be trying to get the Pentagon to do the work of Congress and Cabinet secretaries, who have legal options to remove a president.”
“Mr. Trump, they noted, is still the commander in chief, and unless he is removed, the military is bound to follow his lawful orders. While military officials can refuse to carry out orders they view as illegal, they cannot proactively remove the president from the chain of command. That would be a military coup, these officials said.”
From a former CIA officer and a Democrat:
Both the left and the right are condemning Pelosi for this outrageous maneuver. Even the leftist publication Vox called it ‘dangerous’.
“Nancy Pelosi has reached out to the US military about taking away President Trump’s nuclear authority,” writes Vox. “She’s playing a dangerous game with America’s national security.”
“But if the president has to stop and ask a whole bunch of other people for approval first before ordering a nuclear strike, or if there’s any confusion about who actually has the authority to do so, that could slow things down to the point that the US’s ability to respond quickly before it’s destroyed in a massive nuclear attack could disappear,” writes Vox.
No action has even been suggested against Pelosi for this move. None. Meanwhile, impeachment proceedings led by Pelosi are allegedly being pushed forward to ensure that President Trump can never run for office again. Predictably, when she failed to implement the 25th Amendment, Pelosi once again is going for impeachment.
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