Pence: ‘There’s no call’ for Trump remarks about Milley

Former Vice President Mike Pence said former President Trump’s remarks about Gen. Mark Milley, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were uncalled for.

“There’s no call for that kind of language directed towards someone who’s worn the uniform of the United States and served with just distinction,” Pence said Thursday on CNN. “Look, I haven’t agreed with every decision that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who just retired, made over the last two years, but I’m pretty sure most of those came out of the Biden administration, you know, pushing their political correctness and woke politics at the Pentagon.”

Pence’s remarks echo other criticism of the former president’s swipes at Milley last week, where he suggested the top military official deserved the death penalty over calls he made to China at the end of Trump’s term. 

“This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” Trump’s post read. “A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act. To be continued!!!”

Milley said Wednesday he will take “appropriate measures” to make sure he and his family are safe in response to Trump’s comments. 

“I’ve got adequate safety precautions,” the military leader said in response to a question about his concern about his safety from CBS’s Norah O’Donnell.

Pence also said Americans want to “restore a threshold of civility in public life” when discussing Trump’s attack on Milley.

“And one of the things I hear when I’m out on the street out campaigning is that people know that, that I put a high premium on civility and on speaking in a respectful way,” he said, “even when we disagree I keep it on policy, not on personal invective.”

“And I think it’s one of the reasons why I grow more confident by the day that we’re going to turn the page on, on this difficult and divisive time in our nation,” the former vice president added.