{"id":136185,"date":"2020-06-10T21:22:37","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T21:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smg.go-vip.net\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/06\/10\/defense-committee-chairman-expresses-profound-frustration-with-esper\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:12:15","slug":"defense-committee-chairman-expresses-profound-frustration-with-esper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/06\/10\/defense-committee-chairman-expresses-profound-frustration-with-esper\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense committee chairman expresses \u2018profound frustration\u2019 with Esper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The chairman of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2020\/06\/10\/defense-bill-to-include-billion-dollars-for-pandemic-response-and-preparedness\/\" target=_blank>House Armed Services Committee<\/a> today expressed \u201cprofound frustration\u201d with Secretary of Defense Mark Esper over a \u201cunacceptable\u201d lack of response to a request that Esper appear before the committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., also indicated that the White House may be directing Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, not to respond to the request from the Democratically-controlled House, while the Pentagon pushed back at his criticisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is unacceptable that, except for staff communication, you have not responded to our formal written request that you and Chairman Milley appear before the committee for a hearing on the Department\u2019s roles and authorities in civilian law enforcement,\u201d Smith wrote in a publicly released letter. \u201cWe understand that the White House may be preventing you from testifying, obstructing Congress\u2019 ability to conduct its constitutionally charged oversight responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTherefore, I ask that you coordinate with the committee to provide your and Chairman Milley\u2019s availability no later than June 11, 2020, so that we can schedule a hearing. Without your cooperation, the committee will be forced to set a hearing date and time without your input.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The letter comes several days after Smith said Esper and Milley <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2020\/06\/05\/esper-milley-wont-testify-before-the-house\/\">had declined to appear<\/a> before the committee, something the Pentagon has denied, saying the issue is one of scheduling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement, chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said the department would be \u201cresponding by letter today to this latest correspondence,\u201d but pushed back on Smith\u2019s comments, saying that HASC staff &#8220;is also well aware that we have been working on finding a mutually available date to testify soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI would point out that most \u2014 if not all \u2014 of the questions in the chairman\u2019s previous letter were answered during a member briefing on Monday with Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy and [Maj. Gen.] William Walker of the D.C. National Guard,\u201d Hoffman wrote. \u201cThis briefing was open to all members of the committee and was led by Chairman Smith. HASC staff are fully aware that they had received a commitment from DoD to provide those same answers in writing with additional details by COB today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the latest missive, which was released as Esper was spotted meeting with key defense senators on the Hill, Smith also hit Esper for not responding to a list of questions regarding the events of June 1, when Esper and Milley were among aides who accompanied Trump just after peaceful demonstrators were gassed in front of the White House. After the protesters were cleared, Trump posed for a photograph with a Bible in front of nearby St. John\u2019s Episcopal Church, which was damaged by fire amid protests the night before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That event, which included Trump threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act and use active duty military forces against protesters around the country, both exploded concerns about the role of the military and several days later led to speculation that Esper was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2020\/06\/04\/under-fire-from-all-sides-espers-next-move-may-dictate-his-future\/\">about to lose his job<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Smith\u2019s note is the latest in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2020\/04\/28\/senators-blast-espers-dysfunctional-decision-making-on-coronavirus\/\">series of criticisms<\/a> of Esper from Democrats in Congress, an unusual situation for the defense committees that often have a solid, bipartisan working relationship with military officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Pentagon spokesman pushed back at the claims by Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":115370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":86,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[28,29,117,15,86],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3302],"class_list":["post-136185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disaster","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"UEVSE3Y3LRHLHOHOOOALYLZ54Y","arc_canonical_url":"\/congress\/2020\/06\/10\/defense-committee-chairman-expresses-profound-frustration-with-esper\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Defense committee chairman expresses \u2018profound frustration\u2019 with Esper - Military Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Pentagon spokesman pushed back at the claims by Rep. 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