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WITHFormer US defense secretaries have jointly warned against using the military in the controversy over the election results. Engaging the military would put the United States in “dangerous, illegal and unconstitutional territory,” warned Republicans and Democrats in a guest post in the Washington Post.
The ten former Pentagon chiefs who were still alive have signed, including Mark Esper, who recently served President Donald Trump, and James Mattis, who had served under Trump until 2018. The other signatories are Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta, William Perry, and Donald Rumsfeld.
Peaceful handovers are a hallmark of American democracy, the letter said. The elections are over, the counts and reviews are over, and the Electoral College has voted. The time has come to accept Trump’s defeat and Biden’s victory
recognize.
Republican Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden in the November 3 election. Trump refuses to admit defeat. Critics sometimes feared that Trump might even instrumentalize the military if necessary to stay in power. His former security adviser Michael Flynn had said in December that elections could be repeated in certain states under the supervision of the military by order of the president. Biden will be sworn in as the new president on January 20.
