The Democrat Party Platform: But, Trump…

PSAKI: This president — this current president — uh, who follows the Constitution, who’s not fomenting an insurrection, who follows the rule of law, has complete confidence in Chairman Milley and him serving — continuing to serve in his role.

REPORTER: And even as Republicans may criticize and have questions about his ability to continue, would that be a factor that President Biden would consider, separate from his judgment about how he conducted himself?

PSAKI: I don’t think the president is looking for the guidance of members of Congress who stood by while (sputtering) the… their… their… president — the president of the United States and the leader of their party — fomented an insurrection and many of them were silent.

BUCK: Oh, the insurrection!

CLAY: The insurrection.

BUCK: It’s the answer for everything, isn’t it? Oh, you had a man who are subverting the demand and telling the Chinese military that he’d give them a heads-up before the attack that no one actually thought was coming? Whatever, he’s not the insurrectionist. “I mean, is General Milley QAnon Shaman? I think not; therefore, he should suffer no consequences.”

That’s basically what you get from Jen Psaki. Welcome back to the Clay and Buck show. And Jen Psaki for me sometimes it sounds to start a bit like the mom in Charlie Brown that’s like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I know what she’s gonna say before she says it. It’s all very predictable. And here exactly the same thing.

Notice every time Democrats get cornered on one of their own or someone on their side, the move is going to be, “But Trump” or “But the insurrection.” And that will not change over the next couple years, unless something else crazy happens. But those will always be. Look, I think, Clay, that “But Trump” might have been a major factor in Gavin Newsom not only keeping his job but keeping it by a pretty clear margin.

CLAY: Yeah, I don’t think there’s any doubt that the Republican Party, the Democrats believe, is unable to win with Donald Trump. There’s obviously many people in the Republican Party who disagree, many people who are listening to us right now.

BUCK: Gets the base fired up, right?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: It gets the Democrat base fired up.

CLAY: But the Democratic base believes that Trump is Satan, and that’s why whether it is General Milley… It really doesn’t matter who the person is. As long as you are anti-Trump, it’s effectively a get-out-of-jail-free card. And I don’t think it’s coincidental that the conversation on General Milley and his incompetence has totally vanished surrounding Afghanistan.

Remember it wasn’t too long ago Jen Psaki was getting questions, “Is anybody gonna resign? Are there gonna be any consequences for the abject failure that came out of Afghanistan?” And now Milley suddenly has all these bona fides because he stood up to Donald Trump even if he was subverting the chain of command, the Constitution, and everything else.

BUCK: Isn’t it amazing when you look at the standard is under the Biden administration? “Give away Bagram air base? Don’t resign! Leave Americans behind in Kabul at the mercy of the Taliban? Leave Afghan SIV holders behind? Don’t resign!”

CLAY: Billions of dollars in materiel.

BUCK: “Sent senior citizens into nursing homes to die by the thousands that likely would not have otherwise because of covid positivity, because of a terrible executive order? Don’t resign! Say some things to women that makes them uncomfortable in the workplace? Oh, you’re gone!” This is the Democrat Party. Obviously I’m referring to Cuomo here —

CLAY: Unless you’re Joe Biden, and then it’s like, “Oh, it never happened,” a/k/a Tara Reade. I mean, it really is amazing, the sort of crazy limbo that Democrats have to apply to put standards in place that somehow protect all of their people, as long as they’re valuable, right? If Cuomo was still valuable, he wouldn’t have gotten crossed out for sexual harassment, right? They just cast him off the boat because they’re like, “This guy’s just deadweight; let’s get rid of him,” and if they were actually needing him, if he was running for president, this story would have vanished.

BUCK: And yet we see standard, right? Massive blunder that actually affects the American people and has consequences that everybody can see and understand? That, you’re fine, as long as the Democrats still need you. But you offend the wokeness gods, and you may find yourself getting a resignation. No one, I think, involved in the Afghanistan debacle is gonna resign. Let’s get to Kathy in Connecticut. She got an interesting point she wanted to make. I want to get her in here. Kathy, welcome.

CALLER: Hi guys. Always remember: The Democrats accuse Republicans every day of what they, the Democrats, are guilty of.

BUCK: Yes.

CLAY: It’s amazing.

CALLER: They’re worried about Trump being crazy? Joe Biden, we know he’s compromised by China. He’s the one that might have Alzheimer’s. He had two brain aneurysms. See, they blame Trump to cover up for Biden, and there must be a special counsel or a special prosecutor to investigate Biden and Milley.

BUCK: You know, Kathy, it’s a great point. Thank you so much, Kathy. About the special counsel, by the way, Clay? Notice: Trump administration? Mueller special counsel. Bush administration? Valerie Plame. Scooter Libby? Special counsel. They weaponize that statue. Where are our special counsels? Oh, we don’t have them for the last 20 years. Isn’t that a shock? It’s almost like we play all nicey-nice, and they play with a two-by-four to our face.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

CLAY: Breaking news here. Reading from Fox News. This is a statement from, at the time, Trump’s acting defense secretary. This is “Christopher Miller, who led the Pentagon from the period after the 2020 election through Inauguration Day [he] said that he ‘did not and would not ever authorize’ Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to have ‘secret’ calls with his Chinese counterpart, describing the allegations as a ‘disgraceful and unprecedented act of insubordination,’ and calling on him to resign ‘immediately.’

“In a statement to Fox News, Miller,” who was, again, the defense secretary at the time of these calls, “said that the United States Armed Forces, from its inception, has ‘operated under the inviolable principle of civilian control of the military,'” and I’m reading directly from his statement. “‘The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the highest-ranking military officer whose sole role is providing military-specific advice to the president, and by law is prohibited from exercising executive authority to command forces,’ Miller said.

“‘The chain of command runs from the president to the secretary of defense, not through the chairman.’ Miller went on to reference the allegations, which are included in the book [by] Bob Woodward and Robert Costa,” and he says, again, that this is a “violation” and that this should lead to an immediate resignation.

Again, he says, “As secretary of defense, I did not and would not ever authorize such conduct.” This is pretty wild. He also said, Buck, to what you were saying earlier, “Any accusations that President Trump was intent on starting a war with China are completely unfounded.

“President Trump absolutely believed and advocated for a more aggressive approach to China, but he was elected to end our Nation’s wars, not start new ones. I was proud to play a small role in achieving those goals.” He also wants “a full, non-partisan investigation,” and again says that “the genius of our Founders and following generations that established a system and culture of the subservience of our military — the most powerful force in our nation — to civilian control endures.” This is a pretty aggressive statement from the acting, at the time, defense secretary.

BUCK: But you and I both know that they already have the built-in excuse, right, which is that this was the acting secretary of defense for the insurrectionists, for the Trump administration.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: If this were the current secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, then you’d see a resignation. But this is not gonna move the needle of resignation one bit. They’ve dug into the narrative. Here is somebody who a lot of people are saying, “Wait. Who is this? The acting secretary of defense?” He’s a guy from inside. He’s not somebody who was associated with being some mega Trump partisan or something. But nonetheless, he’s just saying that this is outrageous.

It’s obviously outrageous. All of the people who try to justify this always leave out the “Wait a second. Who thought that it needed to be explained to China that Trump wasn’t going to start a war with them?” Because that’s flatly insane. This is kind of like, Clay, with Russia collusion from the very beginning I said, “This is a…” Actually, you know what? I’ll tell you.

The president, President Trump said this to me himself, and I can’t use the exact quote ’cause we’re on radio, but he said, “It’s a very stupid idea,” is what he told me. He didn’t say “very.” He said something else. About Russia collusion. You know, Trump had colorful language. He told me this in the Oval Office. I said, “Yes, sir, absolutely. It doesn’t make sense.

“You’re going to give the Russians leverage over you to find a way to cheat, and you’re gonna hope that they don’t get caught in an election you think you’re gonna win fair and square. But you’re gonna go with Putin? You’re gonna trust the Russians?” Trump would never have trusted them. The whole thing was so crazy from the start that it all should have been dismissed out of hand.

It’s kind of like the same thing here, right? You look at this, you start from the premise of we had to have an explanation from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Chinese that, “Don’t worry. We’re not gonna start,” as you said, “World War III”? That’s insane.

What does that even…? Why would they think that? Well, it’s because Milley and the other people thought, “Oh, Trump and the insurrection, the vote!” Watchin’ too much CNN, man. CNN rots your brain. It’s like putting polonium in the center of your cerebral cortex or something. It’s bad.

CLAY: Well, and again, this goes to the very essence — and I think this is why the defense secretary (acting, at the time), his statement is so important, is he directly references the subservience of our military to civilian control. And that’s why when this story came out yesterday, it strikes at the very essence of our fundamental structure of government.

That you would have a, quote, “secret phone call” taking place where a military official at a high-ranking level is letting it be known that he won’t be following the directives of the democratically elected president of the United States. Which is why, Buck, I think this is such a big story. And if people would just get out of their partisan worldview…

This is what I always used to say. This is the way that I would connect with sports fans back in the day, Buck. Sports fans are intently tribal. They believe whatever their school does, especially in college sports, is justified. And whatever somebody else does isn’t. I’d always say, “Hey, if you think one school is paying for players, imagine that your school did it.”

The difference between the way that you think those should be treated is bias, right? So in this situation, strip away Trump. Strip away the president. Don’t even consider the party. Is it appropriate for a military official to be on a phone call with a Chinese foreign advisory — or any advisory of the United States government — arguing that he will not follow the directive of the commander-in-chief, the democratically elected president of the United States? No! This is a flagrant usurpation of the entire purpose of the Constitution, regardless of political party.

BUCK: You have to remember as well that the true #Resistance believers always thought — and this is gonna be crazy for people to hear, but everyone who’s listening knows this is truth. The true #Resistance believers thought that Trump was never the legitimate president of the United States. So they can justify anything to themselves under this rubric of, “it’s different,” Clay.

“This time it’s different because Trump.” There’s always some way they come back to that. So you’re right. I mean, your framing of it is correct, course, right? We agree this is insane. But the way… First of all, all the people are going on TV, they know that their ratings are better by just having a constant diet of anti-Trumpism for Democrats.

But beyond that, they really convince themselves that Donald Trump… Even though the Mueller probe didn’t find the collusion, right? From day one they thought, and they believed, many of them — which I know is insane — that Trump was an illegitimate president. So, in a sense, Milley was actually, in their minds…

I’m taking you all through a trip into Crazy Town. Milley wasn’t usurping. He was preventing the absolute usurpation of presidential authority to start World War III, because Donald Trump never should have been president in the first place. Welcome to Crazy Town! Population: Democrats.

CLAY: Well, I’ll also say this. The lesson to me of the Democratic response to Donald Trump is: What you hate often ends up defining you. That’s an important lesson. It’s kind of like a psychological worldview to think about. You have to be very careful that in hating something, you don’t allow yourself to become what you claim to hate.

Look at everything that Democrats and their allies in the media did to fight Donald Trump and ask yourself this: Who was the bigger threat to American democracy? Twitter, when it’s banning articles and the democratically elected president of the United States? The resistance inside of the military that’s having secret conversations with America’s most foremost foe?

The people who are demanding that there be an investigation into Russian collusion? They all claim that they were defending our democracy, while at the same time systematically undermining and destroying the foundations of what they claim to love.

You have to be careful when you allow hate to drive you — and I sound a little bit like Star Wars here. The hate will end up infecting you to such a agree that what you claim to hate begins to define you. And I think that’s what happened to the Democratic Party.

BUCK: And don’t forget, Clay: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

CLAY: (chuckles) We can go Spider-Man 2 if we have to.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

(White House reporter asking question)

BIDEN HANDLER: Thank you, guys. Thank you. Let’s —

REPORTER: Sir, did General Milley do the right thing?

BIDEN HANDLER: C’mon! C’mon!

REPORTER: Sir, in your opinion —

BIDEN HANDLER: Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you! C’mon! Let’s go! Thanks. Thank you, guys.

REPORTER: — did General Milley do the right thing?

BIDEN: I have great confidence —

BIDEN HANDLER: Thank you.

BIDEN: — in General Milley.

BIDEN HANDLER: Thank you, guys. Let’s go.

BUCK: If Biden has “great confidence in General Milley,” we should all not worry about it, I suppose. This is not surprising at all. We knew this. Just like James Comey was the great hero of the #Resistance under Trump, now Milley — who still is in his role, right? I mean, Comey got fired by Trump, which is why then he turned on him after sucking up to him for months and months.

Milley is still chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He’s not looking like he’s gonna step down any time soon. That’s for sure. Clay, it’s also fun as I sit here, we got Biden saying Milley is the great; we got Lieutenant Colonel Vindman on CNN. Remember that guy? He’s on CNN right now.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: He’s just like, “Oh, I’m such a hero,” and before Vindman you had the lie-under-oath former acting FBI director on CNN, McCabe, who’s their law enforcement analyst (who maybe can teach you how to get away with a felony), and it’s astonishing to see how clearly the Democrats will elevate and reward anybody who is a weapon against their political opponents no matter what rules they break, how underhanded it is, Milley included.

CLAY: Even if the political opponent is out of office! I think that’s so significant. We started off today’s show talking about what, Buck? That Gavin Newsom had managed to stay in my office, and what did he do?

BUCK: He ran against Trump!

CLAY: He ran against Trump.

BUCK: He ran against Trumpism, which is amazing. He ran against the bogeyman who does not exist under his bed.

CLAY: And now what’s happening with General Milley? He’s a hero not because we’re even looking what happened in Afghanistan, which is the most disastrous foreign policy evacuation — maybe the most disastrous foreign policy plan since Saigon in 1975. And now suddenly Milley, who executed that plan to absolute failure, is being praised.

Not for anything that he’s actually doing now, but for subverting the United States Constitution and the military relationship with the president because it had to do with Trump. And this is what I finished off by saying. Everybody out there who is doing this is allowing themselves to fundamentally destroy the underlying democratic ideals of this country based on their hate for Donald Trump.

Think about it. The Washington Post, Buck, wrote Democracy Dies in Darkness when Donald Trump got elected president. Has any president…? I mean this honestly. Has any president been more aggressively covered, pilloried, attacked, destroyed by the United States media in our lives that Donald Trump? No. Of course not.

There’s not even anybody close. And yet without covid, he wins reelection by a massive amount, because the vast majority of the American public — people who are listening to us right now — understand that Trump is not perfect. But his end result and goals — even he he sometimes is like a bull in a china shop breaking stuff in the process — were the right place. He got to the right result even if sometimes his methods to get there were flawed.