The US armed forces will have no role in carrying out the election process or resolving a disputed vote, the top US military officer has told the US Congress.
The comments from US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley underscore the extraordinary political environment in the US, where US President Donald Trump has declared without evidence that the expected surge in mail-in ballots would make the vote “inaccurate and fraudulent,” and has suggested he might not accept the election results if he loses.
Milley’s comments were released on Friday.
Trump’s repeated complaints questioning the election’s validity have triggered unprecedented worries about the potential for chaos surrounding the election results.
Some have speculated that the military might be called upon to get involved, either by Trump trying to use it to help his re-election prospects or, as former US vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has suggested, to remove Trump from the White House if he refuses to accept defeat.
The US military has adamantly sought to tamp down that speculation and is zealously protective of its historically nonpartisan nature.
“I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical US military,” Milley said in written responses to several questions posed by two Democratic members of the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.
“In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law US courts and the US Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the US military. I foresee no role for the US armed forces in this process,” he wrote.
Milley’s tone reflected the long-standing views of US military leaders who insist that the nation’s military stays out of politics and that troops are sworn to protect the country and uphold the constitution.
However, US representatives Elissa Slotkin and Mikie Sherrill on Friday said that Trump’s comments and his efforts to use the military to quell protests have fueled their concerns.
The two lawmakers released Milley’s answers.
“These are just prudent questions to be asking given the things that the president has been saying publicly,” said Slotkin, pointing to Trump’s use of the military to clear protesters from Lafayette Square in Washington and his suggestions that he might put law enforcement at the polls to make sure voting is conducted professionally.
Milley’s answers, she said, “demonstrated that the chairman recognized the military’s role in our elections is to essentially stay out; that the military’s role in the peaceful transition of power is to stay out.”
Faced with polls showing he is trailing Biden, Trump last month said it was too early to guarantee he would accept the election results.
“I have to see. Look ... I have to see,” Trump said on Fox News Sunday. “No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no.”
The Biden campaign at the time responded that “the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”
Milley, known to be a student of military and constitutional history, anchored many of his responses in the US’ founding document.
Asked if the military would refuse an order from the US president if he was attempting to use military action for political gain rather than national security, Milley said: “I will not follow an unlawful order.”
Sherrill, a former navy helicopter pilot, said: “This is personal for me.”
The US attorney general and other Cabinet members should be asked similar questions, she said.
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