Trump fires defense chief
More changes expected as US president declines to accept defeat, claims voting irregularities
United States President Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Nov 9 and reportedly is considering firing FBI Director Christopher Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel.
Esper’s firing was the first top leadership change that aides said they expect Trump to make during the final two months of his administration, according to The Washington Post, which did not name the aides.
Trump and Esper, 56, had clashed over several issues. In June, Esper publicly disagreed with Trump, saying that active-duty military troops should not be sent to control the wave of protests, rioting and looting in US cities.
Esper also disagreed with Trump on the withdrawal of US forces from key overseas bases and the display of Confederate emblems and names at military installations.
“Mark Esper has been terminated,” Trump tweeted. “I would like to thank him for his service.” He named Christopher Miller, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, as acting defense secretary.
Trump and some congressional Republicans have repeatedly and publicly complained that Wray and Haspel were not cooperative in pursuing allegations that the Obama administration illegally spied on the Trump campaign or, in Wray’s case, allegations about the business dealings of Hunter Biden when his father, Democrat Joe Biden, was vice-president.
On Nov 9, the ranks of Trump supporters refusing to recognize Biden as president-elect and supporting
Trump’s challenge of election results with legal options, gained its most prominent member: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Speaking at a photo opportunity with new Republican senators elected last week, McConnell did not respond to questions about whether he has seen any evidence of fraud as claimed by Trump. However, on the Senate floor he said the president is entitled to challenge the validity of the election results as he sees fit.
“Our institutions are actually built for this,” McConnell said. “We have the system in place to consider concerns, and President Trump is 100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options.”
McConnell said there should be “no lectures” from Democrats who “just
spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election”.
Following McConnell on the Senate floor, Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York said that “Joe Biden won this election fair and square”. He called Trump’s claims of fraud “extremely dangerous, extremely poisonous to our democracy”.
“Republican leaders must unequivocally condemn the president’s rhetoric and work to ensure the peaceful transfer of power,” Schumer said.
Trump has declined to concede the presidential race and has continued to assert that there were widespread irregularities in several states, but has so far not provided evidence. He has claimed on Twitter that he won the election, as Biden on Nov 7 secured the necessary 270 electoral votes to win the White House.
Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller said on Nov 9 that conceding “is not even in our vocabulary right now”.
While most Senate Republicans have refused to acknowledge that Biden will become the next president, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who won re-election last week, broke ranks on Nov 9 and congratulated Biden on his “apparent victory”.
“He loves this country, and I wish him every success,” Collins said in a statement. “Presidential transitions are important, and the president-elect and the vice-president-elect should be given every opportunity to ensure that they are ready to govern on January 20.”
She was only the fourth Republican senator to recognize Biden’s election. Senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Ben Sasse of Nebraska are the only other Republicans in the chamber who have publicly congratulated Biden. All have been critical of Trump at various times, and in February Romney was the only Republican who voted in favor of convicting Trump of abuse of power after his impeachment trial. Trump was acquitted in the Senate.
Former president George W. Bush, the only living former Republican president, said in a statement that he had congratulated Biden in a phone call on Nov 8 and that, while Trump has the right to pursue legal challenges and recounts, the 2020 race was “fundamentally fair “and “its outcome is clear”. Bush also offered congratulations to Trump “on a hard-fought campaign,” nodding to his “extraordinary political achievement” of winning the votes of more than 70 million Americans, the second-most in history behind Biden.
“Republican leaders must unequivocally condemn the president’s rhetoric and work to ensure the peaceful transfer of power.”
CHUCK SCHUMER Senate Democratic minority leader