The letter – signed by Dick Cheney, James Mattis, Mark Esper, Leon Panetta, Donald Rumsfeld, William Cohen, Chuck Hagel, Robert Gates, William Perry and Ashton Carter – amounts to a remarkable show of strength against Trump’s subversion efforts only a few days before the Congress is set to count the votes of the Electoral College.
“Our elections took place. Recounts and audits were carried out. The appropriate disputes were dealt with by the courts. The governors certified the results. And the electoral college voted. The time to question the results has passed; the time for formal counting of the electoral college votes , as prescribed in the Constitution and the statute, has arrived “, wrote the group.
Still, a wide range of Republicans in Congress are on the president’s side and plan to oppose Biden’s victory during the Electoral College count on Wednesday – although his efforts will only delay the inevitable claim of Biden’s victory.
Former Defense Secretaries, who collectively represent decades in office, wrote that presidential transitions “are a crucial part of the successful transfer of power.”
“They tend to occur in times of international uncertainty about the US national security policy and posture. They can be a time when the nation is vulnerable to the actions of opponents who seek to take advantage of the situation.”
This is a last-minute story and will be updated.