Milley Makes First Public Comments Defending Calls to China: ‘Routine Calls’ to ‘Reassure Both Allies and Adversaries’

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General Mark Milley publicly responded Friday to the reports in a new book about his calls to China in the final months of the Trump presidency.

There are some pretty serious revelations about actions the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff took, detailed by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, including that Milley took steps to stop Donald Trump from launching nukes.

One of the most serious reports is that Milley called his Chinese counterpart to assure that the United States would not attack. He called General Li Zuocheng in late October and again just two days after the Capitol riots on January 6th.

Milley reportedly reached out to say “the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay” and that “we are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.”

The book also says Milley added, “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.”

There has been an uproar over these reported comments, with Republicans calling for Milley to go, while Trump himself and some allies have accused him of treason.

Milley’s office defended those calls earlier this week, but the man himself gave his first public comments to reporters Friday.

Per the Wall Street Journal, he said, “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. And these are perfectly within the duties and responsibilities of the chairman.”

He added, “I will go into any level of detail Congress wants to go into.”

Milley is set to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on September 28th on Afghanistan.