In a preview of FNC host Bret Baier’s interview with Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley that aired on Friday, Milley touched on his time serving under former President Donald Trump, which at times was tumultuous, as acknowledged by Milley on multiple occasions.
Milley emphasized his oath to the Constitution and insisted the military should be “apolitical.”
“We take an oath to the Constitution,” he replied. “We take an oath to a document. And within that document is embedded the idea. It’s codified in that document this idea that is America. And I have — my mother and father — my mother was in World War II. My dad’s in World War II. They fought for something. They fought for an idea. They fought for each other in the sense of they fought for other folks in the unit. But, on a larger sense, they fought for an idea, the idea that is America, the idea that all Americans are created equal, and we are endowed by the creator with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And all of us have those fundamental rights as Americans for liberty and freedom.”
“And we, those of us in uniform, we are taking a sacred oath to defend those, even at the cost of our life, that all men, all women, regardless of who you are, black, white, doesn’t matter if you’re Asian or Indian, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jew,” Milley continued. “None of that matters. What matters in this country is that we’re all Americans. We’re all one single country. We’re all Americans, no matter where we came from, what our last name is. It doesn’t matter. We’re Americans. And we are dedicated to freedom and liberty. And it’s our job to make sure that we keep that that way.”
Milley acknowledged he had considered resignation at the height of tension with then-President Donald Trump. However, he insisted the Constitution took precedent in those situations.
“Well, again, I go back to, my North Star is the Constitution,” he added. “And I am grounded in that as my basic, core essence of who I am as a soldier. And that is where we need to stay as a military. We have to be apolitical. We stay out of the politics of the day, and we maintain our oath to the Constitution, regardless of what party is in power.”
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