Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper tells Norah O’Donnell he personally killed a “ridiculous” plan from White House adviser Stephen Miller to deploy 250,000 troops to the southern border as a migrant caravan approached. Speaking to 60 MINUTES in his first interview ahead of the release of his new book, “A Sacred Oath,” Esper says he initially thought Miller was joking when he asked for the troops while waiting in the Oval Office. The full interview airs Sunday, May 8 on 60 MINUTES (7:00 PM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.

A preview of the 60 MINUTES report aired tonight on EVENING NEWS (6:30-7:00 PM, ET). A transcript of the excerpt is below.

Click here to watch.

TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT:

NORAH O’DONNELL: Who suggested that we send a quarter million U.S. troops to the border?

MARK ESPER: Yeah, Stephen Miller. We’re in a meeting, waiting for the president to come out. We’re standing around the Resolute Desk. And he’s behind me. And this voice just starts talking about–caravans are coming.

And, “We need to get troops to the border. And we need a quarter million troops. And I think he’s joking. And then I turn around and I look at him and these–and these deadpan eyes. Clearly, he is not joking.

And so I say something like, “Well, look, DHS can handle whatever caravans are coming up. They’ve done so in the past.” And he repeats, “No, we need a quarter million troops.” And I just turn squarely around to him, face him, and say, “I don’t have a quarter million troops to send on some ridiculous mission to the border.”

I told this story to General Milley and my chief of staff. I said, “Let’s be safe. Let’s just check and make sure that this isn’t being worked somewhere in the building. And Milley comes back days later and the door opens up and he’s waving a document that’s in hand.

And he says something like, “Secretary, you’re not gonna believe this.” And that’s when he explains to me that, yes, they were working. That we had developed a plan, initial concept of how this might happen. And I was just flabbergasted that, not only was the idea proposed, but that people in my department were working on it.

O’DONNELL: What would’ve been the implications if we had sent 250,000 active-duty U.S. troops to the border?

ESPER: (LAUGH) It’s just so absurd. I can’t even consider it. I mean, again, we don’t have 250,000 troops to send to the border. And to do what? It’s just ridiculous.

O’DONNELL: Whatever happened to that plan?

ESPER: Well, it died. I gave General Milley specific instruction to tell NORTHCOM, Northern Command, to stop working on it, to cease and desist. And that if anybody had any questions, you tell them they should call me direct. I never got a phone call.

O’DONNELL: It was dead?

ESPER: It was dead and it died, as it should.

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Natalie Pahz

Director of Communications

60 Minutes

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