“As senior leaders, everything you do will be closely watched. And I am not immune. 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 video commencement address to National Defense University.
“I should not have been there,” the general continued. “My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics,” he said.
They were Milley’s first public remarks since the June 1 photo-op, in which Trump walked with several administration officials from the White House to the church, which had been partially burned by vandals amid nationwide demonstrations days earlier. The president held up a Bible to take a photo. The photo-op and dispersal of peaceful protesters was strongly criticized by Democrats and some Republicans.
GOP Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska released a statement on June 2 saying there is “no right to riot, no right to destroy others’ property, and no right to throw rocks at police. But there is a fundamental—a Constitutional—right to protest, and I’m against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop.”
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who also walked with the president to the church, previously appeared to distance himself from the controversial moment in comments to reporters on June 3.
“I did know that following the president’s remarks on Monday evening that many of us were wanting to join President Trump and review the damage in Lafayette Park and at St. John’s Episcopal Church,” Esper said. “What I was not aware of was exactly where we were going when we arrived at the church and what the plans were once we got there.”
Trump’s actions drew a scathing public rebuke from former Secretary of Defense General James Mattis, who resigned from the administration in late 2018 over disagreements with the president’s policy toward Syria.
“When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” Mattis wrote in a statement first published by The Atlantic. “Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside,” he said.
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska later told The Washington Post that Mattis’ “words were true and honest and necessary and overdue.” She also said she was struggling to decide who she’d vote for come November.
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment on Milley’s remarks but they did not immediately respond.
This article has been updated with additional information and background.
