Former Defense Secretary James Mattis accused his former boss of complicity in the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill siege.
Former President Donald Trump undermined American democracy, Mattis said. Since his departure from the Trump administration in December 2018, Mattis has been a frequent critic of Trump.
“There are also internal threats right now,” he said, mentioning “the lack of unity on the consensual underpinnings of our democracy, and what we saw on Jan. 6, fomented by a sitting president” as a grave concern.
The four-star general cited other stimuli as root causes of the congressional attack. Namely, Mattis pointed to globalism as a challenge that the nation must face.
“Globalism hasn’t been altogether good in large parts of our country,” he said, noting that “certain trade deals” had “second- and third-order effects inside our own country” of hurting some people financially and stirring feelings of helplessness.
Trump was the first president in Mattis’s lifetime who failed to unite the country, he said in June 2020.
“We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership,” he said. “We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy … but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”
Trump fired back, including his Democratic predecessor in his retort.
“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,” he tweeted. “I asked for his letter of resignation, & felt great about it. … I didn’t like his ‘leadership’ style or much else about him, and many others agree. Glad he is gone!”
