On the Wednesday edition of MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle Reports, Ruhle and PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor were perplexed by why Republicans were calling for Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley to be fired after it was alleged that, among other things, he promised his Chinese counterpart a heads up in the event of a U.S. attack.
The confusion came about because according to Alcindor:
The most shocking thing is that people within the Trump Administration thought President Trump was crazy. They thought that he was someone who could not be trusted to head the military and to be the commander in chief of our country and that you had military officials taking extraordinary actions and having extraordinary conversations in order to try to protect the American people from what they thought was a president who was unstable and who at times they felt was mentally ill.
Regarding Milley's agreement with Speaker Pelosi's that Trump was crazy, Alcindor declared:
That tells you that even people who are not conventionally political, they were looking at President Trump and saying he is someone that is very, very much someone who would put us all in peril, and as a result you see this reporting coming out with people saying they had to try to do what they could, even breaching the chain of command in order to try to protect the country.
Ruhle eventually shifted to the Republican response. Specifically, she cited Marco Rubio, wondering, "Milley resigns. How is that a win for Rubio? What does he get out of that?"
According to Alcindor, it's not principle Rubio wanted, but voters:
I think what he gets out of it is this more close alliance to the head of the Republican Party, which is former President Trump. There are these people, of course, that are going to be vying, Marco Rubio, others who are going to be vying to see if former President Trump doesn't run, can they still run on the Trump legacy, can they still run on the closeness with Trump? Because Republican voters are very, very much aligned with Trump. So, if you're someone who is now seen as having Trump's back, you could then be seen as someone who would take Trump's supporters if he doesn't run for president.
She belatedly acknowledged Republicans think Milley stepped out of line, but immediately dismissed them. "Go back to Democrats who say President Trump was unstable, he was lying about the very democracy that holds this country together and that he needed to be stopped and needed to have guardrails around him and General Milley was one of those guardrails," she argued.
No military general should be promising to warn an adversary of impending attacks, which a video introduction at the beginning of the segment briefly mentioned, but which Ruhle and Alcindor didn't even address. So far, Milley had denied subverting the nuclear chain of command, but he hasn't denied making a promise to warn China. That's the story, not Rubio's hypothetical 2024 ambitions.
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Here is a transcript for the September 15 show:
MSNBC
Stephanie Ruhle Reports
9:11 AM ET
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: The most shocking thing when you take all of this reporting into account, and I've been talking to some former Trump officials, as well as some allies of President Trump, the most shocking thing is that people within the Trump Administration thought President Trump was crazy. They thought that he was someone who could not be trusted to head the military and to be the commander-in-chief of our country. And that you had military officials taking extraordinary actions and having extraordinary conversations in order to try to protect the American people from what they thought was a president who was unstable, and who at times they felt was mentally ill.This was a president who, even his -- even the people that were closest to him really did not trust him with some of the basic things that a president is supposed to do, which is really protect the American people.
I've also been having conversations with people who have at sometimes confirmed for me the direct word-for-word conversation that General Milley was having with a number of people, among them House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who, of course, at the time was a chief opponent of former President Trump on January 8th, this was two days after the Capitol attack.
And when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said “he is crazy, he is crazy, we cannot trust him,” General Milley, who is not a political person said “I agree with you on everything.” That's word for word. That tells you that even people who are not conventionally political, they were looking at President Trump and saying he is someone that is very, very much someone who would put us all in peril, and as a result you see this reporting coming out with people saying they had to try to do what they could, even breaching the chain of command in order to try to protect the country.
(…)
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Milley resigns. How's that a win for Rubio? What does he get out of that?ALCINDOR: It’s a really interesting question. I think what he gets out of it is this more close alliance to the head of the Republican Party, which is former President Trump. There are these people, of course, that are going to be vying, Marco Rubio, others who are going to be vying to see if former President Trump doesn't run, can they still run on the Trump legacy, can they still run on the closeness with Trump? Because Republican voters are very, very much aligned with Trump.
So, if you're someone who is now seen as having Trump's back, you could then be seen as someone who would take Trump's supporters if he doesn't run for president. So that's, of course, the political angle. Of course, if you ask Republicans, they're saying what Marco Rubio gets out of this is taking down a joint chief of staff who stepped out of line who Republicans think -- who Republicans think did the wrong thing here. Of course, that's a Republican view of this because you go back to Democrats who say President Trump was unstable, he was lying about the very democracy that holds this country together and that he needed to be stopped and needed to have guardrails around him and General Milley was one of those guardrails.
