Voices grow in condemnation of Trump's military response to protests
By Ellen Mitchell - 06/05/20 07:50 PM EDT
High-ranking current and former defense officials are piling on condemnations of President Trump’s handling of this week’s protests following the death of George Floyd.
On Friday, 89 former military officials - including Defense Secretaries Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel and Ash Carter - wrote in an op-ed that they were “alarmed†at Trump’s threats to order troops to quell protests.
“As former leaders in the Defense Department - civilian and military, Republican, Democrat and independent - we all took an oath upon assuming office ‘to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,’ as did the president and all members of the military," they wrote. "We are alarmed at how the president is betraying this oath by threatening to order members of the U.S. military to violate the rights of their fellow Americans.â€
The op-ed, published in The Washington Post, came hours after the release of a letter, signed by 280 former senior U.S. diplomats and military leaders, calling out Trump over his threats to use military forces to scatter protesting crowds.
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https://thehill.com/policy/defense/501435-voices-grow-in-condemnation-of-trumps-military-response-to-protests
