Military chiefs denounce Trump
DONALD TRUMP was yesterday facing questions about whether military chiefs fully back his handling of the anti-racism protests after an excoriating rebuke by his former defence secretary gained the support of a Republican senator.
The US president tried to wave away a searing critique by Jim Mattis, his Pentagon chief until December 2018, by claiming he fired Mr Mattis – who resigned over Syria policy disagreements – and calling him “the world’s most overrated general”.
However, Mr Mattis’s 640-word statement, which saw him argue Mr
Trump was the only American president in history who tries to divide rather than unite the country, was backed by one of the party’s prominent moderates.
Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska, said yesterday: “I thought General Mattis’s words were true and honest and necessary and overdue.” Asked if she still supported Mr Trump, she replied: “I am struggling with it. I have struggled with it for a long time.”
While some dismissed Ms Murkowski’s criticism – she voted against impeaching the president over the Ukraine scandal just four months ago – the rebukes from past military leaders have been mounting. Chief among them was that of Mr Mattis, a four-star general who Mr Trump picked as his defence secretary when he took office in January 2017. “I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled,” Mr Mattis, nicknamed “Mad Dog” during his military days, began in his statement to The Atlantic magazine.
“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,” Mr Mattis wrote. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”
Mr Mattis was not the only defence figure distancing themselves from the president. Mark Esper, the current defence secretary, hours earlier had said he opposed the use of active-duty troops to counter protesters – something Mr Trump had floated.
John Allen, a former commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said Mr Trump had “failed to show sympathy, empathy, compassion, or understanding”.
Mike Mullen, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Mr Trump’s actions in Lafayette Square had “laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country”.
In the nation’s capital, Democratic senators stood silent for eight minutes and 46 seconds, marking the amount of time Mr Floyd gasped for breath. Some knelt down on one knee.