FIFTY
On January 9, one day after his fraught calls with General Li of China and Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Milley jotted some thoughts in his daily notebook.
It came almost like a brainstorm.
On the January 6 riot, he wrote, “What is this amorphous thing that just happened on the 6th? Who are these people?”
He jotted rapidly:
“6MWE”
“Extreme Tea Party”
“QAnon,” he added, taking note of the fully discredited conspiracy theory.
“Patriot Movement,” a far-right militia.
“We the People Movement”
“Nazis”
“Proud Boys”
“The Oath Keepers”
“Newsmax,” the conservative news website, which had been friendly toward Trump for a long time.
“Epoch,” referring to the The Epoch Times, a far-right publication that was critical of the Chinese Communist Party.
Milley summarized and scribbled.
“Big Threat: domestic terrorism.”
Some were the new Brown Shirts, a U.S. version, Milley concluded, of the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party that supported Hitler. It was a planned revolution. Steve Bannon’s vision coming to life. Bring it all down, blow it up, burn it, and emerge with power.
Milley began to draft a public memo to the military. “January 6, 2021 was a direct assault on the U.S. Congress, the Capitol building, and our Constitutional process.” He added, “On January 20, 2021… President-elect Biden will be inaugurated and will become our 46th Commander in Chief.”
It was not traditionally the job of the chairman to make such declarations.
Milley took a draft to a confidential Tank meeting at the Pentagon. He handed out copies to the joint chiefs.
“You don’t have to sign it,” he said. “I can sign it by myself for myself as chairman on behalf of the chiefs. Or we can all sign it. Take a look and tell me what you think.”
They all read it, and all said they would sign the letter. It went out January 12.
Media coverage of Milley’s letter was scant, but Vox reported it was a “remarkable statement” and “it looks as though America’s top military officials won’t tolerate another thing: the attempted overthrow of American democracy by force.”
Still, Milley remained worried. He thought back to how Trump engaged with U.S. allies. There was no one in the global leadership who could connect with him, hold him back.
He recalled other Oval Office outbursts.
“That bitch kraut, Merkel!” Trump had shouted in one meeting about the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Trump turned to Milley and others.
“I was raised by the biggest kraut of them all, Fred Trump,” he said. He wheeled around in his chair and pointed to the picture of his father that sat on the table behind the Resolute Desk.
Others in the room were speechless.
Even his family was not off-limits.
“You know,” Trump joked in another meeting, mocking his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was raised in a modern Orthodox Jewish family and was working on Middle East peace, “Jared’s more loyal to Israel than the United States.”
On January 15, with Secret Service cooperation, Milley called the heads of all departments or their deputies for a rehearsal of the Biden inauguration. They met in Conmy Hall at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. The space was historic, a massive former indoor equestrian facility long used by the military. But it had been transformed in recent years into a modern space with a 144-foot by 14-foot screen and rows of lights that made it look like a Hollywood movie set.
The Department of Homeland Security had initially designated the Biden inaugural as a National Special Security Event from January 19 to 21. But after January 6, the special event designation was reset to begin January 13. That meant the Secret Service, the lead agency, would have more time to ensure the city was locked down.
Using an overhead projector, Milley had a bright map of the entire city beamed onto the floor, showing all the roads and bridges, monuments and other buildings, including the Capitol and the White House.
“What happened on January 6th is not happening again,” Milley told the group. “We are going to make sure we are going to have a peaceful transfer of power. This city is going to have layer upon layer of security. Joe Biden is going to be the president of the United States at 12 noon and it’s going to be done peacefully.”
Milley began to conduct what is known as a “ROC drill” in the military, a rehearsal of concepts and responsibilities.
The National Guard would have 25,000 troops in the city and every police and law enforcement agency was going to be there. No one was going to be able to move.
“The Proud Boys are coming across the 14th Street Bridge,” Milley said. He asked each key leader from the departments, “What do you do?”
“Is there an airplane threat? What would you do? Who would be responsible?
“How about a car-bomb threat?
“Unmanned aerial vehicle? A drone?
“A threat against a specific monument?”
Some had answers, some did not.
“I hope there’s an attorney in here because I’m going to caveat my answers,” one FBI deputy director said at one point. Rehearsing law enforcement decisions was difficult, the FBI official said. “It’s not a perfect science. We’re doing the best we can.” Others agreed.
A Capitol Police official asked, “What about armed protests before the inauguration?”
Books, maps and pages of data were shuffled and exchanged as the discussion continued. Milley told them to focus on who makes decisions. This operation demanded coherence. “Where’s the one command post?” he asked. After a round of answers, they agreed on a classified spot.
What kind of weapons would the Guard use?
M4 carbine, the primary infantry weapon.
Someone asked, “If a guy shows up with horns, a painted face, wearing bear skin and tries to take your weapons, what do our soldiers do?”
“We’ve trained for that,” a one-star general replied.
Milley’s projection showed two security lines around the Capitol: a green-dotted line was the first and would be manned by National Guard. The second was a red-dotted line, one block further inside.
“You could have 200, 300 guys, the Boogaloo Boys, with Nazi shirts and flying Confederate flags, saying, ‘We’re headed to tear down the Martin Luther King monument.’ Do you want troops or law enforcement?”
The answer was law enforcement officers who could make arrests. Park Police said they’d have roaming golf carts on the National Mall starting at 8 a.m. on January 20, keeping watch of the monuments and museums.
As the meeting stretched on, there were grumbles and more long, multipart questions. The room was full of uncertainty and discomfort. There was no playbook for securing a post-insurrection inauguration. There were so many stakeholders, so many federal agencies.
“Pain of preparation is much less than the pain of regret,” Milley said. And for emphasis, he repeated the mission.
“There’s a huge amount at stake. On the 20th, at 12:01, Joe Biden will be sworn in. We’re going to make that happen.”