The 10 living former defense secretaries say election is over in forceful public letter



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The letter – signed by Dick Cheney, James Mattis, Mark Esper, Leon Panetta, Donald Rumsfeld, William Cohen, Chuck Hagel, Robert Gates, William Perry and Ashton Carter – amounts to a remarkable show of force against Trump’s subversion efforts a few barely days. before Congress counts the votes of the constituencies.

“Our elections have taken place. Recounts and audits have been carried out. The courts have taken up the appropriate challenges. The governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed. the time for the official counting of the votes of the electoral college, as prescribed in the Constitution and the statute, has arrived, ”the group wrote.

Since polling day, Trump has falsely claimed a second term was stolen, even though there were no credible allegations of widespread voting problems, as dozens of judges, governors have claimed and election officials, the Electoral College, the Department of Homeland Security, and the United States Supreme Court.

Still, a wide range of Congressional Republicans are siding with the president and plan to oppose Biden’s victory in the Electoral College tally on Wednesday – though their efforts will only delay the inevitable assertion of victory. Biden.

Former Defense Secretaries, who collectively represent decades of seniority in this post, wrote that presidential transitions “are a crucial part of the successful transfer of power”.

“They often arise at times of international uncertainty over US national security policy and posture. They can be a time when the nation is vulnerable to the actions of adversaries seeking to take advantage of the situation.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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