Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper spoke with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Tuesday and briefly addressed his tenure in the Donald Trump administration.
Esper has been critical of President Joe Biden over the chaos in Afghanistan, and on Sunday he said both Biden and Trump made wrong decisions:
He reiterated some of those criticisms on CNN International Tuesday, telling Amanpour that Biden “owns” the consequences of this.
Esper has not been that outspoken about the former president, so Amanpour noted at one point he was fried and asked him, “What did you think a ‘yes person’ might do? Did the president even ask you to do anything or make any decision or take any action that you considered dangerous, reckless, or possibly even illegal concerning the military?”
Esper insisted he “would never do anything that is illegal, immoral, unethical, and inappropriate as well.”
“I left the administration with my head held high,” he said. “I think we at DOD did everything we could to advance America’s security abroad and made good progress on that.”
Esper added in passing, “There’ll be future times to talk about deeper issues, and I’ll promise to come back on your show at some point and do that.”
Amanpour picked up on that to ask, “You said you never would do anything illegal or inappropriate. I obviously believe you. Were you asked — period, end of
“I was never asked to do anything illegal or what I considered immoral,” Esper responded.
You can watch above, via CNN International.