Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said that if the reports implicating Gen. Mark Milley for making secret calls to his communist Chinese counterpart are true, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “needs to be read his rights.”
“Did General Milley call our enemy, Communist China, and say this? ‘If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise,’” Scott tweeted. “If true, Milley needs to be read his rights. If not true, why is Bob Woodward lying…again?”
Did General Milley call our enemy, Communist China, and say this? “If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.”
If true, Milley needs to be read his rights. If not true, why is Bob Woodward lying…again?
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) September 16, 2021
Milley reportedly called Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army twice while former President Donald Trump was still in office to reassure the communist military authority that the United States did not have plans to attack China.
One day prior to calling for action against Milley, Scott said he didn’t “take this ‘reporting’ as gospel,” but thinks Milley needs to “immediately address these accusations & testify to Congress ASAP.”
I don't take this "reporting" as gospel. No one should…but we need answers from Gen. Milley.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs actively undermining the president is unimaginable. Gen. Milley needs to immediately address these accusations & testify to Congress ASAP. https://t.co/FHgmzL73Jo
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) September 15, 2021
Christopher Miller, acting Defense Secretary under Trump, said on Wednesday that Milley had no authority to make “secret” calls to his counterpart in communist China and needs to resign “immediately,” Fox News reported. Miller also called the alleged calls a “disgraceful and unprecedented act of insubordination” and repeated that he “did not and would not ever authorize” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to make those calls because it caused Milley to break the chain of command.
Scott is not the only Republican politician calling for action against Milley. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio wrote a letter to President Joe Biden calling for Milley to be fired after the general reportedly “contemplated a treasonous leak of classified information to the Chinese Communist Party.”
In the letter, Rubio said Milley “worked to actively undermine the sitting Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces” and did not deserve to keep his position.
“These actions by General Milley demonstrate a clear lack of sound judgment, and I urge you to dismiss him immediately,” Rubio wrote. “I do not need to tell of you the dangers posed by senior military officers leaking classified information on U.S. military operations, but I will underscore that such subversion undermines the President’s ability to negotiate and leverage one of this nation’s instruments of national power in his interactions with foreign nations.”
