I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Monday, October 4th.

It's not every day that a new book comes out and makes news that leads to a grilling of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff

in Congress. But that has happened with the new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa called Peril,

which revealed that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Millie, General Millie, was in touch with China

in the final months and weeks of the Trump administration

to reassure them that Trump was not going to launch a military strike to help himself not turn

over power to Joe Biden. Here is Millie last week in a statement to the Senate about those calls

on October 30th and January 8th. The calls on 30 October and 8th January were coordinated before and after

with Secretary Esper and Acting Secretary Miller's staffs and the interagency.

The specific purpose of the October and January calls were to generate,

or were generated by concerning intelligence,

which caused us to believe the Chinese were worried about an attack on them by the United States.

I know, I am certain that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese, and it is my directed responsibility,

and it was my directed responsibility by the Secretary

to convey that intent for the Chinese.

My task at that time was to de-escalate.

General Millie also testified about the reporting in the book that there was widespread concern

at the end of Trump's term about his mental state in the context of his potential launch

of a nuclear strike.

Later that same day on 8th January, Speaker of the House Pelosi called me to inquire

about the President's ability to launch nuclear weapons.

I sought to assure her that nuclear launch is governed by a very specific and deliberate process.

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