Thread by @jaketapper

The fact that these 10 former Secretaries of Defense felt the need to unprecedentedly sign this letter should absolutely be a cause for alarm.

https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1345854068678385664

2/ Why would Cheney, Rumsfeld, Mattis & Esper (and the rest) feel the need to write that “Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory” ?

3/ Why note that “Acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller and his subordinates — political appointees, officers and civil servants — are each bound by oath, law and precedent to facilitate the entry into office of the incoming administration, and to do so wholeheartedly”?

4/ Why write of Miller et al that “They must also refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team”?

5/ This comes right after @IgnatiusPost reported that “Government officials fear that if violence spreads, Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act to mobilize the military.”

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

6/ “Then,” Ignatius reported, “Trump might use ‘military capabilities’ to rerun the Nov. 3 election in swing states, as suggested by Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser...”

7/ “Trump ‘could take military capabilities and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election,’ Flynn told Newsmax in a Dec. 17 interview.”

8/ Read both WaPo pieces to understand the fears about what administration officials fear might happen. Which makes what Hawley, Cruz, McCarthy and others are doing all the more dangerous if not seditious.