[Above: Esper in 2019. -- eds.]
Trump's former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that when protesters descended on Washington, D.C. after the death of George Floyd, Trump asked if "you can just shoot them?"
"Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?" Trump was quoted as saying.
Mark Esper penned a new book (of COURSE he saved reports of Trump's fascism for his book, doesn't everybody?) called "A Sacred Oath," about his tenure in the White House from June of 2019 until his firing by President Trump after the November 2020 election.
Axios points out Esper's book had been vetted by the highest level of Pentagon including generals and cabinet members before it was approved to be released.
"Was surreal, sitting in front of the Resolute desk, inside the Oval Office, with this idea weighing heavily in the air, and the president red-faced and complaining loudly about the protests underway in Washington, D.C.," Esper writes.
"The bad news — I had to figure out a way to walk Trump back without creating the mess I was trying to avoid."
In June of 2020, Esper said in a press briefing that he didn't support using an 1807 Insurrection Act to use the military against protesters he didn't like.
Back in October of 2019, two New York Times reporters wrote that Trump that in March 2019, Trump suggested soldiers could shoot migrants in the legs trying to cross the border from Mexico.
So this latest book-promo/"revelation" shouldn't come as a shock.
What this last-minute craven book revelation is, is more evidence of Trump's dictator mindset and unfitness to ever hold public office again.
