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
he s my guest. let s go outfront . good evening. i m erin burnett. the breaking news, general milley wasn t alone. as calls grow from mark milley to resign over revelations he contacted a top chinese general twice in the final months of donald trump s presidency to reassure beijing the u.s. would not attack china, we re learning mark esper also took extraordinary steps at the same time. a former senior defense official says that the chinese were so concerned about the rhetoric coming out of trump s white house last year that esper, the defense secretary had a top deputy, not milley, a top deputy back channel beijing telling them they were in no danger of being attacked. that is the exact same thing milley said and we ve learned today that milley conducted his call to the top chinese general in consultation with and with the approval of secretary esper.
bow williams. mark ed enter ordered a top policy advisor to send a back channel message to beijing to reassure them. that message and order before the october 30th call that milley made to his counterpart and that, the point of this was according to this top former official a two-step process to avoid any unnecessary confrontation that could lead to con conflict. erin, you may remember esper was fired but milley continued his out reach with the chinese. the white house today standing by the country s top general amid accusations he had gone too far at the end of donald trump s presidency in conversations with his counterpart in china and american adversary. the president knows general milley. he has been chairman of the joint chiefs for almost eight months of his presidency. they have worked side by side through a range of international events and the president has complete confidence in his