WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 01: Secretary of Protection Mark Esper speaks as U.S. President Donald Trump … [+]
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Previous Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Monday that the actions of former President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election—and on January 6, 2021—represented a threat to American democracy.
“I feel that, given the gatherings of January 6, provided how he has undermined the election results,” Esper explained. “He incited people today to come to D.C., stirred them up that early morning, and failed to simply call them off, to me, that threatens our democracy.”
In an interview Monday, Esper advised Fox Information anchor Bret Baier that he hopes Trump does not decide on to run once more in 2024. “I do not know. I hope he does not. I hope that the Republican base can figure out that, while President Trump pushed a large amount of traditional Republican thoughts, ideal, lesser governing administration, significantly less taxes, a stronger armed forces, border protection, all those points, that there are other candidates out there that could operate that could do it devoid of dividing the people, with out developing these types of rigidity within just the nation, and do it by developing the foundation as properly. I assume there are candidates out there that can do that.”
US President Donald Trump, with Protection Secretary Mark Esper, speaks all through the departure ceremony … [+]
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Esper’s new ebook about his time in the Trump White Household, “A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Protection All through Amazing Times,” has already produced news in advance of its launch Tuesday, with The New York Times
NYT
Esper, who was fired by President Trump just times right after the 2020 election, told NPR that throughout the summer of that calendar year, Mr. Trump requested about shooting protesters amid the unrest following the death of George Floyd.
“We achieved that issue in the discussion exactly where he seemed frankly at [Joint Chiefs of Staff] Gen. [Mark] Milley and mentioned, ‘Can’t you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or a little something?’ … It was a recommendation and a official dilemma. And we have been just all taken aback at that instant as this concern just hung incredibly heavily in the air.”