Mark Esper said he managed to prevent some "dangerous things" while servingTrump .- He said on CBS that "every few weeks," ideas would come up, which he would have to "swat" down.
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that he prevented "dangerous things" from happening during his time in the Trump administration.
Esper, whose $4 is due for release on Tuesday, talked about his time working for former President
Speaking to host Norah O'Donnell, Esper said he wrote about his tensions with Trump because "it's important to the republic, the American people, that they understand what was going on in this very consequential period."
He pointed specifically to the last year of the Trump administration, saying that his memoir also tells "the story about things we prevented."
"Really bad things. Dangerous things that could have taken the country in a dark direction," Esper said.
In response to O'Donnell's question about what he prevented, Esper recalled the various proposals raised during Trump's last year in office.
According to Esper, these ideas included "proposing to take military action against
"At one point, somebody proposed we blockade
Esper elaborated that it was "mostly" him doing the swatting, although he received "good support" from Gen.
He recalled how he and Milley even came up with a system to reject the ideas.
"I come up with this idea. Actually, Mark Milley and I discussed it — what we call the "Four No's." The four things we had to prevent from happening between then and the election," Esper told O'Donnell.
"And one was no strategic retreats, no unnecessary wars, no politicization of the military, and no misuse of the military. And so, as we went through the next five to six months, that became the metric by which we would measure things," Esper added.
In the same interview, Esper also said that it took "argument after argument" with Trump to persuade the latter to $4
"And I'd have to say, 'Look, Mr. President, at the end of the day, Congress appropriated. It's the law. We have to do it,'" said Esper.
Media outlets have been reporting on excerpts from Esper's upcoming book, which includes recollections of how Trump $4 and how the former president $4