had with colleagues about disputes involving trump. brian todd with the details. frankly, we did win this election. reporter: in those tense days just after last year s election, general mark milley othat they might try to stage a coup according to a new book by washington post reporters who write that milley and other members of the joint chiefs discussed a plan to resign one by one rather than carry out orders from trump. general milley told his deputies that they may try but not fing succeed, you can t do this without the military, the cia and the fbi, we re the guys with the guns. crushing. crushing amounts of pressure and it became clear to a lot of people that the president might not step aside. he was placed in an extremely stressful and difficult situation without a whole lot of people that he can talk it to
getting advice on how to take action. reporter: following his own instincts was something mark milley appeared ready to do from an early age. according to a 2019 new york times profile of him, milley s father who fought with the marines in world war ii did not want his son to go into the military and ebb got one of mark s brothers to sabotage his visit to west point. mark milley instead went to princi princeton, lettered in hockey and studied at m.i.t. as well. very bright dude. reporter: over four decades in the military, he served multiple combat tours in iraq and afghanistan, came under fire several times, commanded high profile units with the tenth mountain division and 101st airborne. he has been in almost every deployment since the late 80s. all of those are really tough jobs where you not only have to
trump, they spoke thursday. mccarthy considering which republicans to appoint to a congressional committee that will investigate the capitol insurrection. in the latest statement, mccarthy said, quote, we had a productive conversation regarding house republicans fundraising, upcoming special elections and the latest work being carried out to target vulnerable democrats. no mention of the insurrection. mccarthy said he appreciated trump s commitment to help house republicans take back the house in 2022. donald trump meanwhile lashing out against joint chiefs chair than mark milley and statements attributed to him in an upcoming book, calling the claims so ridiculous and says he never threatened or spoke to anyone about a coup after he lost the 2020 election. the book by two pulitzer prize winning journalists recounts a number of conversations milley
be tactically and operationally proficient, but you also have to be a pretty damn good leader. and be able to have that emotional intelligence to feel the room. reporter: enstings seninsti would be tested when he walked with president trump to a photo-op at a church after protestors had been cleared. milley later apologized. i should not have been there. my presence in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. reporter: general milley and the defense department did not comment specifically for our story regarding accounts in the book, a defense official close to the general told cnn that he won t publicly address the issues raised in the book but the official also did not dispute them. former president trump not only denying ever speaking about a coup, but also calling milley a