Woodward Defends Milley After Scrutiny at Hearing: People Accusing Him of Treason ‘Are Going to Owe the General an Apology’

General Mark Milley faced a number of questions about his Trump administration actions during Tuesday’s Senate hearing on Afghanistan.

To briefly recap, Bob Woodward and Robert Costa wrote in Peril that Milley was worried then-President Donald Trump’s actions could start war with China, so he called his Chinese counterpart to assure the U.S. would not attack.

Per the Washington Post, Milley said, “I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” and he reportedly “pledge[d] he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack.”

Milley defended his calls as “routine” and said they were meant to offer reassurances “in order to ensure strategic stability.”

Some Republican senators grilled and excoriated Milley over those calls during Tuesday’s hearing.

After the hearing, Woodward appeared on CNN with Jake Tapper and defended Milley’s actions.

Tapper asked asked Woodward, “From your reporting, how close was the U.S. to some kind of military conflict?”

“Milley’s whole point in this is that miscommunication is the seed of war,” Woodward responded.

He noted what Milley confirmed on the record during the hearing, and highlighted what Milley said about not being qualified to assess the president’s mental health.

Tapper asked if “something might have happened” if Milley had not made the call to China.

“Milley felt that’s the case,” Woodward responded.

He reiterated that the reporting he and Costa did found no evidence Milley did “anything other than what he felt in a crisis moment was ‘I’m going to do the maximum amount to protect the United States.'”

Woodward even made a point of saying, “When this is all washed out, those who are saying that General Milley actually was treasonous in what he did I think are going to owe the general an apology.”

You can watch above, via CNN.