Mattis denounces Trump in blistering statement on protests
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Former Defense Secretary James Mattis
James Norman MattisOvernight Defense: Pentagon watchdog sidelined by Trump resigns | Plan would reportedly bring troops in Afghanistan back by Election Day | Third service member dies from COVID-19 Trump wants troops in Afghanistan back stateside by Election Day: report ‘Never Trump’ Republicans: Fringe, or force to be reckoned with? MORE condemned President Trump
Donald John TrumpTrump says inviting Russia to G7 ‘a question of common sense’ Pentagon chief does not support invoking Insurrection Act Dershowitz: Does President Trump have power to declare martial law? MORE for his handling of the protests over George Floyd’s death in a fiery statement released Wednesday.
“I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled,” Mattis wrote in a statement to The Atlantic.
“The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers,” he added.
Mattis said Trump is the first president in his lifetime “who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try.”
“We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership,” Mattis added.
Mattis urged Americans to “unite without him.”
“This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children,” Mattis wrote.
Mattis’s decision to speak out seems to be sparked by Trump’s threat on Monday to deploy U.S. troops to states to quell protests, as well as law enforcement firing tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters outside the White House before Trump walked to the nearby St. John’s Church to take a photo.
“When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. 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,” Mattis wrote.
A White House official was not immediately available for comment.
Mattis resigned in December 2018, shortly after Trump announced plans to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria.
He has been reluctant since then to criticize the president publicly. Last year he told The Atlantic he felt there is a period in which he owes his silence, adding that “it’s not eternal.”