Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Milley apologizes for role in Trump church photo op

https://news.yahoo.com/joint-chiefs-staff-chairman-milley-145200388.html

Allan Smith
,NBC News•June 11, 2020


Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apologized Thursday for his role in President Donald Trump's church photo op last week, saying he shouldn't have been at the scene.

"As many of you saw, the result of the photograph of me at Lafayette Square last week, that sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society," Milley said in a prerecorded address at a commencement ceremony at the National Defense University in Washington. "I should not have been there. My presence in that moment, and in that environment, created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics."

"As a commissioned, uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it," he continued. "We who wear the cloth of our nation come from the people of our nation. And we must hold dear the principle of an apolitical military that is so deeply rooted in the very essence of our Republic. And this is not easy. It takes time and work and effort. But it may be the most important thing each and every one of us does every single day."

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