White House 'wanted to deploy 10,000 troops to Washington, DC to control George Floyd protests'

The White House reportedly wanted to deploy 10,000 active duty soldiers onto the streets of Washington, D.C. to quash George Floyd protesters earlier this week.

A senior defense official told NBC on Saturday that President Trump requested the large number of troops during a ‘contentious’ Oval Office meeting with Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Monday.

The anonymous official told the news network that Esper instead tried to steer Trump away ‘from a buildup of federal forces’ by pushing for governors from several states to send their National Guard members to the nation’s capital.

That same day, Trump appeared for a press conference in the White House Rose Garden where he threatened to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act – which allows the President of the United States to deploy US military within its own borders to suppress civil disorder and rebellion.

In the days prior, some peaceful protests calling for police reform and an end to system racism had turned violent in the nation’s capital with instances of looting, arson and destruction.

Esper did eventually airlift 1,600 active duty troops to bases in the D.C. region ‘to respond if needed’.

The White House reportedly wanted to deploy 10,000 active duty soldiers onto the streets of Washington, D.C. to quell George Floyd protesters earlier this week. Members of the National Guard were sent from various states instead

Esper did eventually airlift 1,600 active duty troops to bases in the D.C. region ‘to respond if needed’. However, but that time 5,000 National Guard members already were already in the city and did not require any assistance. National Guardsmen are seen at the Lincoln Memorial on Tuesday

Thousands of people have been packing into D.C. streets over the past two weeks calling for police reform and end to systemic racism following the death of George Floyd

However, by that time 5,000 National Guard troops already were already in the city and did not require any assistance.

On Thursday, hundreds of combat soldiers with the 82nd Airborne were ordered to leave the D.C. region after only a few days there. Instances of violence and looting had dropped dramatically, and Trump had been widely rebuked for threats to deploy the military.

According to another anonymous official, the nation’s top military officer, General Mark Milley, got into a ‘shouting match’ with Trump after the president spoke of his wish to end the country’s protests by bringing in active military forces.

The official told The New Yorker that Gen. Milley is said to have stayed firm, responding: ‘I’m not doing that. That’s for law enforcement.’

It’s unclear whether that incident took place in the same White House meeting on Monday where Trump told Esper that he wanted 10,000 troops.

On Thursday, Milley publicly rebuked Trump over his proposal to use deploy US armed forces to their own streets, by sending a letter to top military leaders that said the military will continue to protect Americans’ right to ‘freedom of speech and peaceful assembly

On Thursday, Milley publicly rebuked Trump over his proposal to deploy US armed forces in the country’s own streets, sending a letter to top military leaders that said the military will continue to protect Americans’ right to ‘freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.

‘As members of the Joint Force – comprised of all races, colors, and creeds – you embody the ideals of our Constitution,’ Milley wrote.

‘Please remind all of your troops and leaders that we will uphold the values of our nation, and operate consistent with national laws and out own high standards of conduct at all times,’ he further stated.

‘We all committed our lives to the idea that is America,’ Milley hand-wrote in as an addition to the bottom of the letter.

‘We will stay true to that and the American people.’

A National Guard soldier keeps watch at the Lincoln Memorial as thousands of peaceful demonstrators were met with a huge military presence Wednesday following a week of tenses clashes in the capital

Meanwhile, former defense secretary James Mattis also hit out at Trump by publishing scalding op-ed denouncing the president’s leadership in the face of widespread protests across the country.

In a piece published on Wednesday, Mattis spoke out for the first time publicly since he was fired by Trump in 2018, blasting the commander-in-chief for threatening to deploy the military.

‘We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate’, he wrote.

‘At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict -a false conflict -between the military and civilian society.

‘It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them,’ Mattis wrote.

Demonstrators protest Thursday near the White House over the death of George Floyd

Demonstrators hold signs as they walk down Capitol Hill during a protest on Saturday

READ MARINE GENERAL JIM MATTIS’ FULL CONDEMNATION OF DONALD TRUMP

I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand -one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values – our values as people and our values as a nation.

When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens -much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate.’ At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict -a false conflict -between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.

James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that ‘America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.’ We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.

Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that ‘The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’ We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis -confident that we are better than our politics.

Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.

We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s ‘better angels,’ and listen to them, as we work to unite.

Only by adopting a new path – which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals- will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.