In this daily series, Newsweek explores the causes of Congressional riots on January 6.
on Wednesday, November 18, 9 days after being appointed, Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller began to travel the world.
Miller has entered Pentagon Assure leaders that he will not do anything radical, even if his pro-Trump guerrillas hold key positions. He hardly talked about the transition or the election squabble, but introduced himself, called all combat commanders around the world, and dealt with the White House’s demands.
Perhaps Miller thought he would serve as secretary for more than three months (he has not publicly stated his position since January 6), but then he began a journey of global military outposts and allies. He started on the new aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford On the 18th, on November 24th, he left Washington for a Thanksgiving trip to the Middle East via Germany. In Bahrain, he met with the leaders of the Fifth Fleet and delivered meals to the sailors, then flew to Qatar, where he again delivered meals and met with the leaders of the United States and the Air Force and the Minister of State for Defense Affairs of Qatar. Miller flew from Qatar to Camp Lemonier in Djibouti on the Red Sea coast of the Horn of Africa, once again providing meals for military personnel and contractors, and meeting with the Somali army.
Ministry of Defense photo by Lisa Ferdinando
This was the traditional trip of the Secretary of Defense to welcome American soldiers, sailors, and pilots in the theater of war, but when he returned to Washington, he took the first public partisan action, notifying the members of the Defense Business Council that they would be fired or once their term of office expired. Was terminated. The appointment of the supervisory committee is always partisan, but mass dismissals are very unusual.The two announced replacements are Trump attorney David Bossi and Corey Lewandowski, Donald TrumpWas the first campaign manager of One America News Network and later became a political commentator for One America News Network, Fox News with CNN.
On December 5, Miller left Washington again and went to Hawaii, Indonesia and the Philippines to visit the headquarters of the US Indo-Pacific Command. When he and his chief of staff, Cash Patel, were on the journey, Patel (but not Miller) was called back to Washington by the White House. According to Leonig and Luck’s “I Can Solve It Alone”, General Mark Milly heard about it and believed that another national security official was about to be fired. “Milly never trusted Patel,” the book said. “Sometimes when meeting with Miller, when Patel leaves the room, the acting secretary of defense will visibly hang his shoulders, as if he can speak freely.” Miller returned to Washington on December 10.
On December 16, Miller flew to Key West, Florida, where he met with the commander of the Southern Interagency Joint Task Force and the commander of the U.S. Southern Command, and visited the Special Forces Underwater Warfare School.
On December 20th, on his way to Europe again, he met with commanders and pilots at two British air bases, then flew to Afghanistan, where he met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul; and the commander of the US military in Afghanistan General Scott Miller (unrelated). Miller announced that by the time of the inauguration, the number of American troops will be reduced to 2,500.
From taking office to the end of the year, Miller spent 18 days on the road.
