
'I'm trying to stay apolitical.' Top US general faces wave of GOP attacks over Trump-era actions
CNN
Top US General Mark Milley appeared before Congress this week to defend Pentagon decision making in Afghanistan but instead found himself fighting a personal battle with lawmakers who charged that he has been more preoccupied with rehabilitating and burnishing his own image.
Republican lawmakers directed their fury at Milley for his cooperation with a number of reporters whose recent books about the Trump administration painted a damning portrait of the former President's final months in office, and for the revelation that Milley reassured his Chinese counterpart after intelligence revealed Beijing was worried former President Donald Trump might launch an attack.
As Republicans seized on the reports to accuse Milley of violating the chain of command and denigrating the former President, hearings that were meant to examine military and policy missteps in Afghanistan instead devolved at times into a battle between Milley and lawmakers about whether he had become a political actor -- a suggestion the four-star general emphatically pushed back on.