January 6 panel transcripts confirm Milley agreed with Pelosi’s assessment that Trump was ‘crazy’

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last year that he agreed with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that former President Donald Trump was ” crazy” as he promised the country’s nuclear codes were safe during his tenure, according to transcripts of his testimony before lawmakers last year.

The transcript is part of a mass database of evidence released Sunday by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol. The documents include detailed accounts of interviews with witnesses, emails between Trump’s lawyers and text messages from those working in the White House at the end of the former president’s term.

The revelation that Milley agreed Trump was “crazy” was first reported in September in a book about his administration published by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The transcripts, however, offer more detail about Milley’s thinking as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump.

Pressed by the House Select Committee on Pelosi’s concerns about Trump’s access to the country’s nuclear weapons, Milley said he assured the president those codes were safe.

“It’s a very rigorous system,” Milley told the panel, adding that he said the same when speaking with Pelosi “to assure him that our nuclear systems and our strategic systems are very safe, that [it] is extraordinarily unlikely that you will have an accidental, illegal or immoral launch of nuclear weapons.

The panel then confirmed that Pelosi said, “You know he’s crazy, don’t you,” and that Milley agreed with that assessment.

“It’s true,” Milley replied to investigators.

Costa, who first released details of Milley’s testimony, said the transcript reflected an “extraordinary moment in American history.”

“A House Speaker asks the Joint Chiefs Chairman if the nuclear codes are safe because she fears the President is insane and likely to make a deadly decision to stay in office,” he wrote Monday. “A big part of the Pelosi legacy, naturally, centers around legislation. But her deep concern about Trump in the past few days and the actions she has taken, from the urgent appeal to Milley to push Pence to invoke the 25 [Amendment], then move on to impeachment, is also a key part of that. She saw a system in danger.