Pelosi Spoke to Joint Chiefs Chairman about Preventing ‘Unstable’ Trump from Ordering Nuclear Strike

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she spoke to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley about precautions that could block “an unstable president” from “ordering a nuclear strike,” or even accessing nuclear launch codes or starting other military hostilities.
“The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy,” Pelosi said in a letter to fellow Democratic lawmakers on Friday.
The California Democrat later told lawmakers at a meeting that Milley had assured her that there are currently steps that would prevent President Donald Trump from ordering a nuclear launch.
A spokesman for the Office of the Joint Chiefs said Pelosi initiated a call with Milley and “he answered her questions regarding the process of nuclear command authority.”
The Pentagon did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment. The National Security Council declined to comment.
Pelosi’s letter comes two days after a mob of Trump supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol after the president encouraged them to “fight” to prevent Joe Biden from becoming the president. Five people, including a Capitol police officer, died in the riot.
The section of the letter referring to her conversation with Milley is entitled, “Preventing an Unhinged President From Using the Nuclear Codes.”
“This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike,” Pelosi wrote.
The joint chiefs’ vice-chairman, Air Force Gen. John Hyten, said during a speech three years ago that he would resist executing an order from Trump to launch nuclear weapons if he considered such an order “illegal.” /Excerpts taken from CNBC