Pelosi Asked After Capitol Riot If WH Staff Did Anything But 'Kiss' Trump's 'Fat Butt', Book Claims

The new book by Bob Woodward "Peril" has not yet been officially released, but the excerpts from it are already making waves. The book, in particular, claimed that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley had assured his Chinese counterpart that the US government was "stable" and no attack against Beijing would be waged by then-President Trump.

Days after the US Capitol was stormed by rioters seeking to prevent the certification of the 2020 election results, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi purportedly raised a straightforward question, wondering in her own manner whether anyone in the Trump White House would stand up against the former president.

"Is there anybody in charge at the White House who was doing anything but kissing his fat butt all over this?", Pelosi questioned General Mark Milley in a heated phone call between the two, according to exceprts from the Bob Woodward and Robert Costa book "Peril", cited by Business Insider. "Is there any reason to think that somebody, some voice of reason, could have weighed in with him?"

Pelosi went on with her bitter tirade, claiming that Trump "traumatised the staff", "assaulted the Capitol and the rest of that", and "he's not going to get away with it". Then, she allegedly pressured Milley into answering whether he could "prevail in the snake pit of the Oval Office and the crazy family as well".

"You'd think there'd been an intervention by now", Pelosi said at one point, according to the book. "Republicans have blood on their hands and everybody who enables [Trump] to do what he does has blood on their hands and the traumatic effect on our country".

Woodward and Costa also said, citing a transcript of the call on 8 January, that Pelosi questioned Milley about how he could curb Trump's power, specifically wondering what buffers the general could impose so that the then-president would be prevented from "initiating military hostilities or from accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike".

Milley, in turn, assured House Speaker Pelosi that all the nuclear codes were secure, and there were legal procedures imposed in order to trigger not just a nuclear strike, but any use of military force.

"Well, we have procedures. There are launch codes and procedures that are required to do that. And I can assure you, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I can assure you that will not happen", he is said to have responded.

This is not the first time the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff is mentioned in "Peril". According to earlier snippets from the book, General Milley contacted his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng, twice, in order to assure him of the US government's stability and promise to warn them in case Trump decides to launch an attack against China.

The former president himself cast doubt on the claims made in the book, but noted nevertheless, that Milley's actions, if true, would amount to "treason".

Similar to his relationship with Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump did not enjoy a warm friendship with Milley, who he dubbed a "woke general". Milley, according to some reports, voiced concerns during Trump's presidency that the 45th president might launch a military coup in order to stay in power - something that the former president himself denied.