Turner Demands Milley Turn Over Intelligence Showing that China Feared Imminent Attack, Transcript of His Call

Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) on Wednesday demanded that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley turn over all intelligence he had showing that China had believed in the days leading up to the 2020 election that the United States was planning to attack it.

According to a recently published book, Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, that alleged intelligence had prompted the general to call his Chinese counterpart and assure him there were no such plans and if there were, he would let him know beforehand.

Milley had allegedly called Chinese Gen. Li Zuocheng and said, “General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise. It’s not going to be a bolt out of the blue.”

Turner during a House Armed Services Committee hearing scolded Milley for not informing the White House of the intelligence and taking matters into his own hands to call Li.

Turner, also a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said to Milley:

Now, you claim that you had information, and it’s all over that China was worried about an imminent attack. You did not tell the president, the vice president, the White House chief of staff, the national security adviser, the secretary of defense, the secretary of state, the director of national intelligence, either of the relevant committees in the House, including the big eight, which you know include Intel.

You didn’t tell the Intelligence Committee. You didn’t tell the Armed Services Committee. You report that after you took it upon yourself to have this phone conversation, that you told them of the conversation heard not that China believed that we were going to imminently attack them, which by the way, has never been true in my lifetime.
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But you chose instead to handle it yourself with a phone call. So, General Milley, you offered all of the concerning intelligence, and I’m going to request that you provide it to us. I would like you to provide us the relevant intelligence information that you based your belief that China was going to — the belief that there was an imminent...

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