‘Extraordinary condemnation.’ James Mattis calls Trump a threat to the Constitution

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis condemned President Trump on Wednesday afternoon in a story published by The Atlantic.

“When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” Mattis wrote. “Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”

The news magazine called Mattis’ comments in a lengthy piece “an extraordinary condemnation” of his former boss and his actions following the nationwide demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the president’s threats to call in national troops.

Mattis, a former Marine Corps general, resigned as secretary of defense in December 2018 in protest of Trump’s policy in Syria.

“But he has now broken his silence, writing an extraordinary broadside in which he denounces the president for dividing the nation, and accuses him of ordering the U.S. military to violate the constitutional rights of American citizens,” writes The Atlantic.

Mattis, a Richland native, recently spoke to Tri-Citians in a radio address on Memorial Day and is scheduled June 18 to give a virtual speech called “Leadership in a Time of Crisis” to the Columbia Basin Badger Club.

Mattis’ statement to The Atlantic said, “The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values — our values as people and our values as a nation.”

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,” he wrote.

Trump responded on Twitter on Thursday by calling Mattis “the world’s most overrated general.”

“I asked for his letter of resignation, & felt great about it. His nickname was ‘Chaos’, which I didn’t like, & changed to ‘Mad Dog’...

... His primary strength was not military, but rather personal public relations. I gave him a new life, things to do, and battles to win, but he seldom ‘brought home the bacon’. I didn’t like his ‘leadership’ style or much else about him, and many others agree. Glad he is gone!”

This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 6:21 PM.