华盛顿——总统唐纳德·特朗普美联社(Associated Press)获得的一份准备好的发言稿副本显示，1月6日国会大厦骚乱期间，美国代理国防部长计划告诉国会，他在起义前几天担心向该建筑派遣部队会加剧对军事政变的担忧，并可能导致肯特州致命枪击事件的重演。
克里斯托弗·米勒的证词旨在为五角大楼对当天混乱的反应辩护，并反驳广泛的批评，即尽管亲特朗普的暴徒暴力闯入大楼并冲进去，但军队来得太慢。
在他的开幕词中，他把自己塑造成一个深思熟虑的领导人，决心让军队只有限地参与进来，他说，这种观点是由对几个月前席卷美国城市的内乱以及以暴力结束的几十年来的事件的积极回应的批评形成的。
他将在周三告诉众议院监督委员会的成员，国防部在支持国内执法方面“记录极差”，包括在20世纪60年代和70年代的民权和反越南战争示威期间。
“大约51年前，1970年5月4日，俄亥俄州国民警卫队向肯特州立大学的示威者开枪，打死了四名美国平民，”米勒说，并补充说，“我致力于避免重复这些场景。”
他还将否认因未能强烈谴责暴徒而受到批评的特朗普参与了国防部的回应，并将表示特朗普甚至建议1月6日可能需要1万名士兵。
米勒预计将与前代理司法部长杰弗里·罗森(Jeffrey Rosen)和哥伦比亚特区警察局长罗伯特·孔戴三世(Robert Contee III)一起作证，他将是参加国会骚乱听证会的国防部最高级官员。到目前为止，这些会议的特点是指责情报缺失、准备不足和执法反应不足。
国会警察面临着被严重击败的批评，联邦调查局未能以足够的紧迫感分享情报，暗示国会大厦可能发生“战争”，国防部在获得对该建筑群的支持方面拖延了一个小时，尽管电视上正在上演暴力、致命的混乱。
该委员会主席、纽约州众议员卡罗琳·马洛尼(Carolyn Maloney)在一份声明中说:“我们的听证会将为美国人民提供第一次机会，听取特朗普政府高级官员关于灾难性情报和安全失败的意见，这些情报和安全失败导致了这场对美国国会大厦的史无前例的恐怖袭击。”
罗森将于1月6日左右首次公开作证，预计他将告诉立法者，司法部在骚乱发生前“采取了适当的预防措施”，在当地警方报告显示，根据美联社获得的准备好的言论，预计将有1万至3万人参加集会和抗议活动后，将战术和其他精英部队置于待命状态。
米勒的证词将是对五角大楼行动的最彻底解释，此前几个月，人们一直批评国民警卫队花了几个小时才到达。
在他的讲话中，他将为自己对大规模军事反应的抵制进行辩护，部分原因是公众对军事政变可能性的“歇斯底里”或对军队可能被用来帮助推翻政府的担忧。选举结果。
由于担心扩大这些怀疑——以及一名士兵可能被激怒而诉诸暴力，从而被视为对第一修正案活动的攻击——他说，他在起义前几天同意只在国会大厦以外的地区部署士兵。
米勒将说:“在我的任期内，不会发生这样的事情，但这些担忧和对它们的歇斯底里，仍然是我在选举团认证期间决定适当和有限地使用我们的武装部队来支持民事执法的因素。”"我对国家的责任是防止宪法危机。"
尽管他会说国防部不应该在国内执法中发挥主导作用，但他认为出于对其他机构之间缺乏协调和信息共享的担忧，启动规划讨论是很重要的。
民主党人表示，他们打算向米勒施压，询问为什么国民警卫队在紧急求助后花了这么长时间才到达。米勒将辩称这些投诉是不合理的。
他将说:“这不是一个视频游戏，在这个游戏中，你可以通过轻弹拇指或一部电影来转移部队，这部电影掩盖了后勤挑战以及与众多其他相关实体协调和同步所需的时间，或者遵守使用这种部队所涉及的重要法律要求。”
尽管米勒在讲话中提供的时间表通常与其他高级领导人提供的时间表一致，但他特别与威廉·沃克(William Walker)发生了冲突，后者作为华盛顿特区国民警卫队(D.C. National Guard)的总指挥，证实了他所说的阻碍他做出回应的五角大楼不寻常的限制。他还描述了从首次请求支持到收到支持之间的三个多小时的延迟。
沃克后来成为众议院的武装军士，负责议院的安全。
米勒将说，沃克被赋予了“完成任务所需的一切权力”，在1月6日之前，他从未对自己掌握的力量表示过任何担忧。他说，他授权部署340名国民警卫队人员，沃克说这是必要的总数，并授权他使用40人的快速反应部队，前提是沃克能够提供所谓的行动概念。
米勒说，他批准在下午3点启动警卫。这种支持直到下午5点以后才到达国会大厦，米勒说这反映了耗时的协调和规划过程。
米勒是一名退伍军人，在特朗普政府的最后几个月被任命为代理国防部长之前，他曾在特朗普手下担任白宫反恐顾问。他取代了马克·埃斯珀，后者在选举后被特朗普视为不够忠诚而被解雇。
这一突然的任命引起了人们的担忧，即米勒是特朗普的忠实者。马龙在周三的听证会上预示了对特朗普的关注，称这位前总统的“煽动性语言挑起并煽动了暴力暴徒。”
然而，米勒在开幕词中说，他认为特朗普“鼓励了抗议者”，但拒绝透露特朗普是否应对这些事件负责。他回忆了1月5日的一次谈话，当时特朗普在当天的一次集会上被一群支持者打动，告诉他第二天需要1万名士兵。
“电话不到三十秒，我没有实质性的回应，也没有详细说明。我认为他的评论意味着第二天需要一支大部队来维持秩序，”米勒说。
Pentagon chief during Jan. 6 riot defends military response
WASHINGTON -- PresidentDonald Trump's acting defense secretary during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots plans to tell Congress that he was concerned in the days before the insurrection that sending troops to the building would fan fears of a military coup and could cause a repeat of the deadly Kent State shootings, according to a copy of prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press.
Christopher Miller's testimony is aimed at defending the Pentagon's response to the chaos of the day and rebutting broad criticism that military forces were too slow to arrive even as pro-Trump rioters violently breached the building and stormed inside.
He casts himself in his opening statement as a deliberate leader who was determined that the military have only limited involvement, a perspective he says was shaped by criticism of the aggressive response to the civil unrest that roiled American cities months earlier, as well as decades-old episodes that ended in violence.
The Defense Department, he will tell members of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, has “an extremely poor record in supporting domestic law enforcement," including during civil rights and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations in the 1960s and 1970s.
“And some 51 years ago, on May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard troops fired at demonstrators at Kent State University and killed four American civilians," Miller will say, adding, “I was committed to avoiding repeating these scenarios.”
He will also deny that Trump, criticized for failing to forcefully condemn the rioters, had any involvement in the Defense Department's response and will say that Trump had even suggested that 10,000 troops might be needed for Jan. 6.
Miller, expected to testify alongside former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and District of Columbia Police Chief Robert Contee III, will be the most senior Defense Department official to participate in congressional hearings on the riots. The sessions so far have featured finger-pointing about missed intelligence, poor preparations and an inadequate law enforcement response.
The Capitol Police have faced criticism for being badly overmatched, the FBI for failing to share with sufficient urgency intelligence suggesting a possible “war” at the Capitol, and the Defense Department for an hourslong delay in getting support to the complex despite the violent, deadly chaos unfolding on TV.
“Our hearing will provide the American people the first opportunity to hear from top Trump Administration officials about the catastrophic intelligence and security failures that enabled this unprecedented terrorist attack on our nation’s Capitol,” the committee’s chair, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
Rosen, testifying publicly for the first time about Jan. 6, is expected to tell lawmakers that the Justice Department “took appropriate precautions” ahead of the riot, putting tactical and other elite units on standby after local police reports indicated that 10,000 to 30,000 people were expected at rallies and protests, according to prepared remarks obtained by the AP.
Miller's testimony will amount to the most thorough explanation of Pentagon actions after months of criticism that it took hours for the National Guard to arrive.
In his remarks, he will defend his resistance to a heavy military response as being shaped in part by public “hysteria” about the possibility of a military coup or concerns that the military might be used to help overturn theelectionresults.
Fearful of amplifying those suspicions — as well as the possibility that a soldier might be provoked into violence in a way that could be perceived as an attack on First Amendment activities — he says he agreed in the days before the insurrection to deploy soldiers only in areas away from the Capitol.
“No such thing was going to occur on my watch but these concerns, and hysteria about them, nonetheless factored into my decisions regarding the appropriate and limited use of our Armed Forces to support civilian law enforcement during the Electoral College certification,” Miller will say. “My obligation to the Nation was to prevent a constitutional crisis.”
Although he will say the Defense Department should not play a lead role in domestic law enforcement, he felt it important to initiate planning discussions out of concern about a lack of coordination and information-sharing between other agencies.
Democrats have signaled that they intend to press Miller on why it took so long for the National Guard to arrive despite urgent pleas for help. Miller will contend that those complaints are unjustified.
“This isn’t a video game where you can move forces with a flick of the thumb or a movie that glosses over the logistical challenges and the time required to coordinate and synchronize with the multitude of other entities involved, or with complying with the important legal requirements involved in the use of such forces," he will say.
Although the timeline Miller offers in his remarks generally matches up with that provided by other high-ranking leaders, he notably puts himself at odds with William Walker, who as commanding general of the D.C. National Guard testified to what he said were unusual Pentagon restrictions that impeded his response. He also described a more than three-hour delay between the time support was first requested and when it was received.
Walker has since become the House sergeant-at-arms, in charge of the chamber's security.
Miller will say that Walker was given “all the authority he needed to fulfill the mission" and that before Jan. 6 he had never expressed any concern about the forces he had at his disposal. He says he authorized the deployment of 340 National Guard personnel, the total amount Walker had said would be necessary, and authorized him to use a 40-member quick reaction force provided that Walker could deliver a so-called concept of operations.
Miller said he approved the activation of the Guard at 3 p.m. That support did not arrive at the Capitol complex until well after 5 p.m., which Miller said reflected the time-consuming process of coordination and planning.
Miller, an Army veteran, served as a White House counterterrorism adviser under Trump before being tapped as acting defense secretary for the final months of the Trump administration. He replaced Mark Esper, who was fired after the election after being seen by Trump as insufficiently loyal.
The abrupt appointment raised concerns that Miller was in place to be a Trump loyalist. Maloney foreshadowed a focus on Trump at Wednesday's hearing, saying the former president's “inflammatory language provoked and incited the violent mob."
In his opening statement, though, Miller says he believes Trump “encouraged the protesters" but declines to say if Trump bears responsibility for the events. He recounts a Jan. 5 conversation when Trump, impressed by a crowd of supporters at a rally that day, told him 10,000 troops would be needed the next day.
“The call lasted fewer than thirty seconds and I did not respond substantively, and there was no elaboration. I took his comment to mean that a large force would be required to maintain order the following day,” Miller says.
