William Cohen Discusses Ex-Defense Secretaries’ Open Letter

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Can I just ask you? Can I ask you? because we’re all a bit surprised and everybody’s asking, what motivated 10 secretaries of defense of both parties to pen this letter? What fears were you anticipating?

WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Well, I think that it’s separate for each of us. But we did come together on the central point . As you look at what the president has been doing, number one, he went to the voters, and the voters said no. He went to the courts, and the courts said no. He then went to the governors, and he’s doing it now in Georgia, basically, a secretary of state, and they’re saying no. And so what we have to make sure is he doesn’t go to the military, and the military says yes, because we have seen him use and, in my judgment, abuse the military in the past, particularly when he called upon the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the secretary of defense to escort or join in his entourage going over to the church where he was filmed holding a Bible, and not — in addition to what was happening up in Seattle with black-clad unidentified men shooting rubber bullets into the heads of protesters. So, there’s been talk of martial law within the White House. There’s been talk outside by Lieutenant General Flynn, saying martial law might be necessary to go back to those states where they want to challenge the vote. And I think all of us collectively said, this is really too far, that you are — we need to abide by your oath. And the oath is the Constitution, not to any one man, any one president. So, it was really a letter on our part saying we’re firing a preemptive shot at any thought that you might give to using the military to overturn the election. So, that was the basic consensus. And I think most of — all the Sec — secretaries of defense — I was going to say SecDefs — they all agreed with the central thrust that the military cannot, should not be used, and it will be a violation of your oath of office, and subject to accountability in the future, should you engage in any conduct that comes from an illegal, unauthorized and immoral act coming out of the White House.