Pentagon official claims Donald Trump’s Defense secretary and the Joint Chiefs chairman DIDN’T mean to be in controversial photo-op at St. John’s Church – and had really just walked out of the White House
- A Defense Department official said Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley didn’t mean to be in President Trump’s photo-op
- The president left the White House and marched across Lafayette park Monday and posed outside St. John’s church holding a Bible
- He arrived moments after law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and other means to break up a peaceful protest on H Street
- Esper, Milley and other administration officials made the walk to the church with Trump in a large group
- The source told PBS Newshour that Milley and Esper simply thought they were leaving the White House to ‘review efforts to quell the protesters’
- Later Tuesday night Milley was spotted walking the streets of Washington, telling a reporter he was there to check on the D.C. National Guard
A top Defense Department official said Tuesday that Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley didn’t mean to be in President Trump’s controversial photo-op at St. John’s Church.
‘Their understanding was they were walking out of the White House to walk through Lafayette Park to review efforts to quell the protesters,’ a top Defense official told PBS NewsHour. ‘They were not aware that the park police and law enforcement had made a decision to clear the square.’
On Monday, shortly before Washington, D.C.’s curfew was set to start, law enforcement used tear gas, police on horseback and rubber bullets to move a crowd off H Street in front of Lafayette Park, so the president could stand outside St. John’s Church, holding up a Bible, alongside a number of government officials.
A Pentagon official told PBS NewsHour that Defense Secretary Mark Esper (center) and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley (second from right) were unaware that they were headed to St. John’s church when the walked across Lafayette Park Monday with President Trump
President Trump followed by Esper, Milley and others, walked across Lafayette Park and to the church moments after a non-violent protest had been cleared off of H Street with law enforcement using tear gas, rubber bullets and officers on horses
President Trump arrived at St. John’s church and held up a Bible, receiving criticism for breaking up a peaceful protest for a photo-op. A top Defense Department official said that the military leaders thought they were only going to survey the law enforcement presence
Milley and Esper both walked with Trump, along with Attorney General Bill Barr, who had been spotted surveying the H Street protests and the law enforcement presence by CNN’s cameras, before the tear-gassing began.
Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and a number of other administration officials joined Trump for the walk out the front gates of the White House and across Lafayette park.
Reports on the ground, including from priests and other clergy who were gathered at St. John’s, indicated the Monday afternoon protests had been peaceful up until that point.
The Defense official said Milley and Esper had been meeting with Trump.
‘As that meeting concluded, the president indicated an interest in viewing the troops that were outside and the Secretary and the Chairman went with him to do so,’ the source said. ‘That’s the extend of what’s taken place. And they were part of the group who continued through Lafayette Park.’
On television, the teargassing of protesters played like a splitscreen moment as it coincided with the president making remarks about being a ‘law and order’ leader.
Then flanked by top commanders in the military, he came out in a show of force and showed off the Bible.
He had also demanded governors make use fully of the National Guard and suggested active military could be deployed if unrest continued.
A senior Defense official told NewsHour that the Pentagon has no interest.
‘We really would like all of this to stay a National Guard response,’ the official said.
Later that evening, as helicopters circled downtown Washington and military vehicles were spotted on the streets, Milley was spotted by reporters walking around.
He told journalist Shabtai Gold that the D.C. National Guard had been deployed and he was ‘seeing how well they’re doing.’