Mattis goes after Trump: The president ‘tries to
divide us’
The former Defense secretary blasts military leaders.
By LARA
SELIGMAN and DANIEL LIPPMAN
06/03/2020
06:43 PM EDT
Updated:
06/03/2020 09:40 PM EDT
Former
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis broke his silence on the conduct of President
Donald Trump on Wednesday, blasting him and top military leaders and saying he
is “angry and appalled” with the events of the past week.
“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.
We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We
are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership,”
Mattis said in a statement sent to reporters Wednesday evening.
This marked
Mattis' first public criticism of his former boss since the retired Marine
Corps general resigned in late 2018 over Trump's decision to pull U.S. troops
from Syria.
While he
did not cite any other officials by name, Mattis harshly criticized Pentagon
leaders, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper, for their handling of the
military response to race-related protests across the country.
Even as
Esper reversed a decision to send home active-duty troops on alert to respond
to unrest in the national capital region on Wednesday, Mattis argued for
deploying the military at home only on “very rare occasions,” and only at the
request of state governors.
“We do not
need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common
purpose,” he wrote.
He cited
Esper’s decision to pose in a “bizarre photo op” outside St. John’s Episcopal
Church in Washington, D.C., after Attorney General Bill Barr ordered the
clearing of protesters on Monday night. Esper said on Wednesday that he hadn’t
known ahead of time that the photo op was happening.
Mattis
called the decision to clear protesters in Lafayette Square an “abuse of
executive authority” and said that Americans should “reject and hold
accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”
Mattis also
urged the public to reject Esper’s characterization of American cities as a
“‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate,'”
referring to the defense secretary’s comments comments to governors on Monday.
(Esper said on Wednesday that in retrospect he would have used different
language “so as not to distract from the more important matters at hand or
allow some to suggest that we are militarizing the issue.”)
Mattis
noted that when he joined the military, he took an oath to support the U.S.
Constitution, and “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.”
Militarizing
the response to civil unrest, as Mattis proclaims “we witnessed in Washington,
DC,” sets up a “false conflict” between the military and civilian society, he
said.
Trump fired
back at Mattis on Wednesday night, tweeting: “Probably the only thing Barack
Obama & I have in common is that we both had the honor of firing Jim
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.‘”
Mattis
actually resigned in a letter that was widely seen as breaking with Trump over
his Syria decision; he was not fired. The “Mad Dog“ nickname had been also
associated with Mattis years before his service in the Trump administration.
In a follow
up-tweet, Trump added: “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!“
White House
press secretary Kayleigh McEnany also attacked Mattis on Twitter by calling his
statement “little more than a self-promotional stunt to appease the DC elite.
President @realDonaldTrump is the law and order President that has restored
peace to our nation‘s streets. Mattis‘ small words pale in comparison to
@POTUS’ strong action.“
Multiple
Pentagon spokespeople didn’t respond to requests for comment on Mattis’
statement.
DEFENSE
Esper, on thin ice with the White House, reverses
decision on troop deployments
The Pentagon chief irritated the president when he
complained about deploying active-duty soldiers.
By LARA
SELIGMAN and MERIDITH MCGRAW
06/03/2020
10:25 AM EDT
Updated:
06/03/2020 08:07 PM EDT
Defense
Secretary Mark Esper abruptly reversed a decision to order active-duty troops
home from the national capital region on Wednesday, capping a roller-coaster
eight hours that have raised new questions about whether the beleaguered
Pentagon chief will keep his job.
Esper irked
the White House Wednesday morning when he appeared in front of cameras to
proclaim his opposition to deploying active-duty troops to respond to protests
around the country — a move that many saw as a break with the president, who on
Monday threatened to do just that if state and local officials fail to deal
with violent protests breaking out across the country.
Though
Esper did not specifically contradict the president, his message and forceful
tone rubbed some in the White House the wrong way, two White House aides and
two others close to the discussions tell POLITICO.
Earlier in
the day, Esper ordered 200 active-duty soldiers from the 82nd Airborne's
immediate response force — brought to the national capital region to deal with
unrest if needed — to return to their home base after two days of more peaceful
demonstrations in D.C. But Esper abruptly overturned the decision just hours
later, after a meeting at the White House and other internal Pentagon
discussions, according to The Associated Press.
The White
House meeting and Esper's reversal suggests the president or his aides
pressured Esper to keep troops in the region after he told reporters in no
uncertain terms that he opposed the use of active-duty troops as law
enforcement right now.
"The
option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used
as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire situations. We
are not in one of those situations right now," Esper said Wednesday in his
first public comments since the protests erupted.
"I do
not support invoking the Insurrection Act," Esper said, referring to the
president's authority to deploy active-duty troops to respond to protests.
The act was
last invoked in 1992 to tamp down violent protests in Los Angeles after the
Rodney King trial.
While
people close to the White House said firing Esper is not currently part of the
conversation, one noted that the defense secretary has previously gone off
message.
Trump: 'I
am mobilizing all federal resources, civilian and military to stop the rioting
and looting'
SharePlay
Video
White House
spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany did little to signal that Esper was in Trump's
good graces.
"As of
right now, Secretary Esper is still Secretary Esper. Should the president lose
faith we will all learn about that in the future," she said.
Esper's
earlier remarks at the Pentagon came as he was under fire for taking part in a
photo op with Trump on Monday night, to his calling protest areas a
"battle space."
The Defense
secretary was harshly criticized for appearing next to Trump and other members
of the administration in front of St. John's Episcopal Church across the street
from the White House, moments after authorities cleared the area of protesters.
Esper
provided a detailed account of the events of Monday night, saying he was
"not aware" that there would be a photo op after the president's
remarks in the Rose Garden. He did know that he and other officials were going
to join Trump in reviewing the damage in Lafayette Park and at the church.
Esper
seemed to acknowledge that appearing in the photograph was misguided, saying
that in his efforts to remain apolitical "sometimes I am successful and
sometimes I'm not as successful." However, he stressed that "my aim
is to keep the department out of politics."
Esper also
addressed his controversial comments to governors over the weekend that states
"dominate" the "battle space" so that civil unrest
"dissipates and we can get back to the right normal." He said the
wording is "part of our military lexicon that I grew up with," and
that the "battle space" in this context referred to the operation,
not to the American people.
However, he
acknowledged that in retrospect he would use different language "so as not
to distract from the more important matters at hand or allow some to suggest
that we are militarizing the issue."
He also
said reports that National Guardsmen fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the
crowds were inaccurate. The Guardsmen were instructed to wear helmets and other
gear for self-protection, "not to serve as some form of
intimidation."
During his
remarks, Esper also condemned the death of George Floyd while in police
custody, calling it "a horrible crime" and saying the officers on
scene must be "held accountable for his murder."
"It is
a tragedy that we have seen repeated too many times," he said.
Esper
acknowledged telling the armed service chiefs that he wanted to send the
department's initial message about the tragedy. But several officials appeared
to break with that order: The top uniformed leaders of the Air Force and Space
Force have condemned Floyd's death in the past few days. Air Force Chief Master
Sergeant Kaleth O. Wright described his own experience as a black man and
called for change in a social media post.
Esper was
asked why it took him a week to address the events. He said he initially wanted
to remain apolitical, but in the past three days as events unfolded "it
became very clear that this is becoming a very combustible national
issue."
"We've
been consumed with a lot of things between now and then, but I do think it's
important to speak up," Esper said. "My hope is that instead of the
violence in the streets we will see peaceful demonstrations that honor George
Floyd, that press for accountability for his murder, that move us to reflect
about racism in America and that serve as a call for action for us to come
together and to address this problem once and for all."
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