I know Mark Milley. We should take his Trump warning seriously.

This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct 14 Episode of “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle.”

As we approach the election, former Donald Trump nominees are sounding the alarm about the prospect of the Republican nominee returning to the White House. According to a forthcoming book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward, retired U.S. Army General Mark Milley called Trump “a fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person in this country.”

These comments from Milley, Trump's former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are absolutely astounding, and as someone who knows him personally, I can tell you that the last thing in the world this man wants to do is be political. Milley has dedicated his entire life to military service and the apolitical pursuit of serving the Commander in Chief – regardless of his or her political affiliation.

That he is taking this step in perhaps the most public way imaginable shows how serious the threat posed by Trump is.

As the president's senior military adviser, Milley served alongside Trump every day. This man saw the former president up close and, after that experience, said emphatically that Trump should never go near the Oval Office again. We should take his message incredibly seriously.

Milley's warning came to light just days before Trump again threatened to use his presidential power to persecute political enemies. In an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News, Trump said he would deploy the military to American soil on Election Day to deal with what he called an “enemy from within.”

Should Trump win a second term, we would rely not only on the rule of law, but also on the character of our men and women in uniform to prevent the former president from taking these extraordinary steps. These brave men and women swear an oath, not to an individual, but to a document and set of principles: the Constitution. I have taken this oath several times, vowing to protect this nation from enemies, both foreign and domestic.

Trump and his allies want to not only weaponize the military, but replace these brave men and women of character with loyalists and yes-men. This possibility is why Milley called Trump “the most dangerous person in this country.” That is the seriousness of this election and that is what is at stake in November.

Allison Detzel contributed.