The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Millie, clashed in a verbal argument with US President Donald Trump, shouting at him earlier this week to force him to back away from sending troops to evacuate protesters in Washington, DC after the murder of the black American, George Floyd.
A senior military official who witnessed the argument claimed that the two had a loud argument before Trump finally withdrew his decision.
In response to Trump's request to deploy forces on the ground in major American cities where there were riots and protests, the eyewitness said that General Millie remained steadfast in his position, and responded to Trump saying, "I am not doing this, this is the work of law enforcement forces," meaning the police.
"We have a bully in the White House, and the bully needs a bully like him," the official, who heard the argument, told The New Yorker.
He says that Millie addressed his boss on the issue of troops going out on the street and suggested that states handle their private affairs alongside local law enforcement and the National Guard.
Both Millie and Defense Secretary Mark Esper have come under fire for accompanying Trump on a street walk to the church to take the memorial photo, but since then they have tried to suggest that they were unaware of what the president was planning, and that they accompanied him unknowingly.
Aides said Trump actually cheated Esper and Millie to join him and go church. Esber, who was later widely criticized, said he regretted it. On Wednesday, he firmly said that he opposes the use of service soldiers to deal with demonstrators.
"The option to use the armed forces should only be used as a last resort and only in the most urgent and dangerous cases," he told reporters at the Pentagon. "We are not in one of those situations now."
Millie also attempted to contain the damage in the wake of Monday's tour, especially after it was revealed how federal authorities ended up using tear gas cylinders and pepper balls to disperse peaceful protesters from the White House garden so the president and his entourage could walk to the church.
Esber told reporters on Wednesday he was unaware of the process of dispersing protesters in the park and did not know that Trump was on his way to take a photo.
"I thought I would do two things: look at some of the damage and talk to the forces," Esber told NBC. He also distanced himself from Trump's threats to use the military to quell protests.
Likewise, Millie was said to have believed that he was accompanying Trump to review the National Guard and Law Enforcement forces stationed outside the White House without knowing that the area had been cleared of protesters by security forces using tear gas, according to the New York Times.