(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have voiced their concerns about potential reprisals from former President Donald Trump.
Esper and Clapper echoed the apprehensions expressed by outgoing General Mark Milley, who worried that he could be thrown in jail if Trump were to be re-elected in 2024. “He’ll start throwing people in jail, and I’d be on the top of the list,” Milley admitted in a Sept. 21 interview with the Atlantic.
During separate alarmist interviews with CNN on Sept. 25, both Esper and Clapper acknowledged their fear of becoming targets of Trump if he were to return to the presidency.
“I think there are probably a lot of people that are potentially on all sorts of lists,” Clapper told CNN host Abby Phillip. “That’s reprehensible. I think General Milley’s comment was he didn’t think President Trump would be reelected. Well, I’m not so sure about that. So, that’s a real concern for many of us.”
Former DNI James Clapper says General Milley’s belief that if Trump were reelected, he would jail his enemies is correct. “There are probably a lot of people that are potentially on such a list… That’s a concern for many of us” pic.twitter.com/gYZD5wsvdC
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) September 26, 2023
Esper echoed these concerns in an earlier interview on The Source with Kaitlan Collins. “I think it’s a legitimate fear,” Esper claimed. “Trump has poisoned the well. I don’t know that a jury or anybody could find, given what we call command influence, that such a thing could happen.”
Later in the interview, Esper alleged without evidence that Trump had vowed to go after his opponents if elected. “The president has also said that a second term would be about retribution, right?” he questioned. “So, I think these are all legitimate concerns.”
YOUR REACTION: Trump’s former Defense Secretary, @MarkTEsper, appeared on @CNN and claimed that if Trump were to become president again, he would seek retribution against people like Gen. Mark Milley, it would just be about revenge, revenge. WATCH
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) September 26, 2023
Clapper and Esper’s remarks came shortly after Trump commented on allegations that Milley had engaged in secret communications with China.
“If the Fake News reporting is correct, [Milley] was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States,” Trump wrote on Sept. 25 via Truth Social. “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been death!”
Milley, who is expected to retire later this month, has been in the spotlight of criticism for his support of Critical Race Theory and other left-leaning ideologies within the U.S. military.
