Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis did not have much to say about President Trump during a wide-ranging interview with CBS Sunday Morning, but did warn the president is “unusual” and warned against the “rabid nature of politics.”
Mattis also said he has no desire to run for president, despite many people wanting him to. Describing a campaign and presidency to one man at his favorite bar in Washington state, he said, “Terry, it would be like a five-year jail sentence.”
Regarding Trump, Mattis made clear he was not going to “speak ill about a sitting president,” indicating he will express his full thoughts when Trump is out of office. Mattis submitted his letter of resignation to Trump over disagreements about pulling U.S. troops out of Syria.
Instead of leaving the Defense Department at the end of February 2019, Trump replaced him with Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan at the beginning of the year.
“I will not speak ill of a sitting president. I’m not going to do it,” Mattis said, adding, “He’s an unusual president our president is. And I think that especially with just the rabid nature of politics today we gotta be careful. We could could tear this country apart.”
In an interview with the Atlantic to discuss his upcoming book, Call Sign Chaos, Mattis further explained why he will not criticize Trump at the moment, but again indicated he will not be quiet on the topic for long.
“The duty of silence. If you leave an administration, you owe some silence. When you leave an administration over clear policy differences, you need to give the people who are still there as much opportunity as possible to defend the country,” he said. “They still have the responsibility of protecting this great big experiment of ours. I know the malevolence some people feel for this country, and we have to give the people who are protecting us some time to carry out their duties without me adding my criticism to the cacophony that is right now so poisonous.”
“There is a period in which I owe my silence. It’s not eternal. It’s not going to be forever,” he added.
