The reporters who revealed last week that Gen. Mark Milley engaged in secret calls with his Chinese counterpart attempted to do damage control, following criticisms of the call, by saying Monday that they do not believe the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff committed treason.
Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of The Washington Post released an excerpt of their forthcoming book, "Peril," that claims Milley spoke with People’s Liberation Army General Li Zuocheng on October 30, 2020, and again January 8, 2021. Milley allegedly ensured Li that the U.S. would not attack China and even went as far as to say that he would warn the communist country if then-President Donald Trump was planning to strike during the last months of his presidency.
"We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you," Milley said during one of the calls. "General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise."
And while Republicans called Milley's actions treasonous and demanded he resign, both Woodward and Costa, during an appearance on "Good Morning America," attempted to downplay the calls with China by saying that they did not believe the chairman was acting in "isolation."
When asked if Milley's calls could be considered as acts of treason, Woodward said, "No, not at all."
"He was not going rogue," Costa added. "This is not someone working in isolation."
The two reporters also claimed that Milley had briefed several officials about the calls to the Chinese. These officials allegedly included the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gina Haspel, and the director of the National Security Agency, Paul Nakasone.
Reporting from Fox News shows that Milley's calls were coordinated with the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Milley, in a statement to the Associated Press last week, defended the calls by saying they were "perfectly" within the scope of his job.
"These are routine calls in order to discuss issues of the day, to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case, in order to ensure strategic stability," Milley said at the time. "And these are perfectly within the duties and responsibilities of the chairman."
He further said that he would go into more details in front of Congress, referring to his scheduled testimony in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on September 28 about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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