that call from milley was on october 30th of 2020. and there was one more call after that. this a call from milley to the same chinese general on january 8th this year. significantly, january 8th is two days after the insurrection. now, this is according to a new book by the reporters bob woodward and robert costa. we learned the calls were not secret. not like milley got on the phone and called his counterpart and now it s leaking out. not at all. we learned there were 15 people on each of those two calls. during the discussion on january 8th. he said we re 100% steady. everything is fine. democracy can be sloppy sometimes. according to the book milley went as far to promise his counterpart he would alert them on a strike to the u.s. in the october call approved by esper.
leon pen nanetta, the cia direc under president obama and this is the first time the secretary is speaking out about this topic. appreciate your time secretary panetta. let me start with the bottom line. was what this book says chairman milley did appropriate or not? look, you know, i don t think there is any question that general milley was operating in accordance with his constitutional responsibilities. we had an unpredictable president not abiding by the constitution and to concede an election, inciting a mob to go after the cab pitol. he was unpredictable in terms of what he d do and i think general milley had a legitimate concern about what could possibly happen and his ability to talk with his counterparts is perfectly
judgment. i have to say some of the allegations seem farfetcheded to me. we don t want to jump to conclusions but we ll vet them and see what happened. the former national security advisor john bolton releasing this statement to us saying quote, mark milley is a staunch supporter of the constitution and rule of law. i have no doubt general milley consulted widely with colleagues on the national security counsel and others during this period. what bolton says he believes happened appears to have happened from all of our reporting, 15 people on each call. a alex is live outfront in washington. this shows how worried esper was about trump s behavior and how far he went with chairman milley to avoid a war. it goes back to how unusually concerned the chinese were at the same time. we re learning from a top former senior defense official that speak with our colleague katy
essentially to stay tuned that he is planning on looking ahead so this could be a rematch in 2022, jim? kyung lah, thank you. larry elder the entertainer and broadcaster to the end. thank you so much. good to see you. thanks for watching. i m jim acosta. erin burnett outfront starts right now. outfront next, breaking news, cnn learning the nation s top general mark milley was not the only trump official to back channel china to reassure the country in the final months of the presidency this is the white house s defense as milley is kicking into high gear tonight. temporary fencing around the capitol going up in the next hour. this is ahead of saturday s rally which is in honor of the january 6th insurrectionist. who is behind this rally? our reporter spoke with the trump loyalest. and a republican quits the gop over the party s objections to vaccine mandates.
the white house s defense in high gear, the president making his support for milley clear. sir, did general milley do the right thing, sir? did general milley do the right thing? i have great confidence in general milley. biden may have great confidence but this issue is splitting the republicans and may not surprise you to hear that some of trump s loyalists are making the case for milley to be gone. if true, general milley has broken some very good laws and we ought to make sure there is accountability for that. he does need to resign. he needs to resign. if he won t resign, he needs to be fired. okay. so you see gates and holly and add to that marjorie taylor greene. she tweeted court marshall mark milley. there are many republicans urging their colleagues to take a breath and not rush to