FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE JAMES MATTIS CALLS PRESIDENT TRUMP AN “UNUSUAL PRESIDENT” IN AN INTERVIEW WITH “CBS SUNDAY MORNING”
Mattis Tells David Martin: “I Think That Especially with the – Just the Rabid Nature of Politics Today We’ve Got to Be Careful. We Could Tear This Country Apart.”
Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis calls President Donald Trump “an unusual president” in an interview with CBS News national security correspondent David Martin to be broadcast Sunday, Sept. 1 (9:00 AM) on CBS SUNDAY MORNING.
In his first television interview since leaving the Trump administration, Mattis discusses why he resigned over his differences with President Trump about withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria.
“I will not speak ill of a sitting president. I’m not going to do it,” Mattis tells Martin.
“He’s an unusual president, our president is,” Mattis says. “And I think that especially with the – just the rabid nature of politics today we’ve got to be careful. We could tear this country apart.”
Mattis resigned in December 2018, one day after President Trump announced that the U.S. was pulling its troops out of Syria, a decision with which Mattis did not agree. Mattis believed a sudden pullout would undermine the campaign against ISIS and betray allies fighting alongside Americans.
“This is how I saw the strength of America, that we keep our alliances together and we keep them tight,” Mattis tells Martin. “And if I wasn’t the right person to do this, then it, the president needed someone more aligned with his views.”
Mattis says he’s not spoken with President Trump since he resigned.
In a wide-ranging interview, Mattis also talks with Martin about his four decades in the Marine Corps, his time in the Obama administration, his new book, Call Sign Chaos, and the lessons history has taught him.
“You just have a role to play for a little while, so play it well, but don’t let it go to your head,” Mattis says.
CBS SUNDAY MORNING is broadcast Sundays (9:00-10:30 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. Rand Morrison is the executive producer.
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