Although it has been almost two months since the results of the 2020 Presidential Election were announced, it seems that President Donald Trump is no more willing to concede the race than he was when the world first learned that Joe Biden would be the 46th president of the United States.
And amid Trump’s repeated claims (without evidence) that the election’s results were influenced by widespread voter fraud , some of his allies are suggesting that the military could re-administer the vote, while others within the House of Representatives and the Senate are planning to object to the Electoral College results when January 6 rolls around.
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In the wake of such rarely-seen post-election tumult, all of the men who could once consider themselves America’s Secretary of Defense have issued a joint letter in response to ongoing electoral challenges within the Republican Party.
On January 3, all 10 living former secretaries of defense signed a public letter published in *The Washington Post*.
As NPR reported , this letter’s signatories included Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta, Jim Mattis, Mark Esper, William Perry and Donald Rumsfeld.
Although it’s partially addressed to the American people at large, it specifically calls out to those currently serving in the Defense department.
And one of the chief points that these former secretaries aimed to get across was that whether President Trump likes it or not, the election is over.
As they wrote , “Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.”
They also cautioned against any military action that would interfere with the election results or see the vote re-administered, which they said “would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory.”
As the letter continued, “Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.”
As CNN reported , General Mark Milley — who chairs The Joint Chiefs of Staff — had stated as early as August that the military would not involve themselves in any U.S. election disputes.
Towards its conclusion, the former defense secretaries’ letter also addressed claims from President-Elect Biden that White House officials have obstructed his transition team’s efforts to meet with Pentagon leaders.
As NPR reported , the former secretaries wrote, “cting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller and his subordinates — political appointees, officers and civil servants — are each bound by oath, law and precedent to facilitate the entry into office of the incoming administration, and to do so wholeheartedly.
“They must also refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team.”
The idea for this bipartisan letter apparently came from former Vice-President Dick Cheney.
This information was tweeted out by William J. Perry, who served as secretary of defense during President Bill Clinton’s administration.
Cheney was himself George H.W. Bush’s secretary of defense before he became the younger President Bush’s second-in-command.
It’s also worth noting that one of the letter’s signatories, Dr. Mark T. Esper, was removed from office by President Trump in November.
As CNN reported , this sudden dismissal heightened concerns among military and civil officials that Trump would seek to fill the Department of Defense’s leadership with his allies.
It was also one of the reasons why this letter was written in the first place.
As William Cohen — who served as secretary of defense under Clinton — said, “It was really our attempt to call out to the American people. We believe all of them are patriotic. They’ve been led down a path by President Trump, which is an unconstitutional path.
“And so we felt it was incumbent on us as having served in the Defense Department to say: Please all of you in the Defense Department, you’ve taken an oath to serve this country, this Constitution, not any given individual.”
