administration, he was willing to stand up to trump s worst impulses during the time he served, but there may be some revisionist history at play here. yes, while esper did publicly defied trump by using the military to quash the protest he was actually seen as little more than a rubber stamp for trump s schemes as npr noted he even the derisive nickname jesper for his unwillingness to disagree with those around him in the white house. and then there s the matter of the book itself, you know here s the thing about esper knew before the election that trump wanted to bomb mexico, he knew this, and then his top aide stephen miller wanted troops to parade around a dead isis leader s head, dipped in pigs blood. did millions of voters have the right to know what kind of president was seeking reelection? might that information have been relevant before now trying
even when he moved up into the job as secretary of defense, the nickname yesper still persisted throughout the pentagon. so, esper has said corny that there were in fact discussions within the pentagon to send troops to the border for the so-called caravan that the administration was constantly humpy an op. do we know how far they got in those discussions are deliberations? so, according to former secretary esper he says that it actually got to the point where the chairman of the joint chiefs had some sort of a plan that had been worked in the joint staff. for this idea of potentially sending 250,000 u.s. troops to the border. and i mean i m sure everyone understands why that s something that would cause a lot of concern among military leaders, number one, that s a tremendous amount of troops to send to the border. i don t even know that the u.s. has 250,000 that the consent
that he was pushing back at times according to some of the antidotes but he was largely pushing back against some of the people surrounding president trump, and less against president trump himself. so, it s hard to know whether that moniker of yesper, was really accurate. enough thing i d point out about mark yesper, he came in as the secretary of the army and then of course we had secretary mattis who was fired in december after secretary yesper had been at the helm of the army for a number of months. it was widely known that mark esper basically lobbied or campaign for the job to be secretary of defense. at that point, president trump had been in office for sometime, for more than a year it was well known sort of how he operated, how s administration operated. and yet mark esper still want to take over the pentagon serve as the cabinet secretary under president trump s administration. so, you know he knew he was when he was getting into, and
sending hundreds and thousands of troops to the u.s. mexico border. who suggested that we send a quarter million u.s. troops to the border? stephen miller, we are in a meeting waiting for the present come out, or standing around the desk and he s behind me and this voice just starts talking about caravans are coming, we need to get troops to the border, we need a quarter million troops, and i think he s joking. and then i turn around and i look at him and he s dead pan eyes, it s clear that he s not joking. according to another report from the time on the buck, miller also proposed at the military secure the head of the dead isis leader, who had just been killed by u.s. forces. and then he went on to recommend keeping it in pigs blood and berating it around to warn other terrorists. that would be a war crime mr. esper shot back. esper is clearly eager to paint himself as a maverick and this
when we invaded iraq in 2003. courtney qb thank you so much for starting us off this evening. congressman jamie raskin as a congressman are investigating january six and he was the lead impeachment manager for donald trump s second impeachment trial, he joins us now. congressman it s great to having you with us, thanks for making time for us, generally speaking let s start with the question that i think is on everyone s mind, what do you make of the allegations in secretary asked esper s book particularly about this potential plan or scheme by trump to bomb mexico? while each of the lurid revelations that have caught the public imagination today revealed trump s fascination with violence. mobilizing hundreds and thousands of troops to the border lobbying patriot missiles at our ally in mexico, and then most interest to me,