- Esper in his new book criticized the lengthy challenges to the 2020 election waged by the Trump campaign.
- He wrote that he didn't foresee the GOP efforts "play out through November, December, and January."
- Trump continues to litigate the 2020 election and repeat debunked claims about the final results.
Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in his new released memoir called the Trump campaign's months-long effort to contest the 2020 presidential election "a national embarrassment," indicating that the lengthy Republican-led push to challenge the results undermined the country's credibility.
In the book, "A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times," Esper — who served under former President Donald Trump as Army secretary from 2017 to 2019 and in his aforementioned role from 2019 until his November 2020 termination by the then-president — wrote that he had long hoped for an election with a clear victor.
"In the weeks and months leading up to the election, close friends and colleagues would ask me my thoughts on the contest," he said. "I would simply say that I wanted the election to be 'clean and clear,' meaning no corruption that could overturn the results, and an electoral vote margin large enough to prevent any serious challenge to the outcome."
He continued: "If we had a repeat of what happened in Florida in 2000, with only a few hundred votes deciding the winner of the contest, that could be an invitation for mischief."
In the 2000 presidential election between then-Democratic Vice President Al Gore and then-Republican Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, Bush edged out Gore by 537 votes out of nearly 6 million ballots cast in the Sunshine State after an extensive recount process and myriad legal challenges that didn't produce a final result until December that year.
Esper in his book wrote that he could see many of the close statewide races trending toward then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden immediately after Election Day.
"I was relieved ... to wake up on the morning of November 4 to learn that the election was not in fact balanced on a razor-thin margin," he said. "Joe Biden was ahead with large enough vote counts in enough states, coupled with strong indications that other open races were trending his way, that it would be difficult for Trump to seriously challenge the results."
He went on to state that an examination of election results is to be expected when there are charges of election fraud or questions concerning voter integrity, but didn't think it would be dragged out for a long period of time.
"I was not surprised by the allegations of fraud and malfeasance that some GOP officials would begin levying," he wrote. "Trump and his campaign did the same and began exploring ways to challenge some of the vote counts."
He added: "That was part of the process, and it is important to the integrity of any election that credible allegations be investigated. It would delay the outcome, I thought, but not too long, and would most likely not change it."
However, Esper was not thrilled by the lengthy timeline of the challenges — which included various Republican groups seeking to invalidate certain votes, along with the push to overturn results in key swing states that included Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania in an attempt to block Biden's win.
"I never imagined ... that these challenges would go on and on, and play out through November, December, and January," he wrote in his book. "It was a national embarrassment that undermined our democracy, our credibility, and our leadership on the world stage."
Trump also reportedly pressed the Justice Department to declare the election corrupt, and was surrounded in the last weeks of his administration by advisers who recommended he could compel his vice president to block the certification of Biden's election, or could even use his powers to impose martial law.
Trump would eventually leave the White House in January 2021, but he continues to repeat debunked claims of a "stolen" election as he teases a potential 2024 presidential campaign.
A representative for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.