Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis said amid the looming cloud of impeachment, the country will be able to survive because of how the Founding Fathers designed the Constitution.
“I want to give you the opportunity to tell us what you think about these latest developments and what it might mean for the state of our democracy,” the Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief Jeffery Goldberg asked Mattis during the Atlantic Festival on Thursday, referencing the recent impeachment inquiry against President Trump.
“In the finest traditions of the free press and of every American having their own rights, you ask annoying questions, I frustrate you in return and the game goes on,” Mattis jokingly replied.
“The bottom line is that I know no more than any of you know, perhaps a little bit less because I’ve been a little busy lately and not paying as much attention to the press, but we have a country that’s set up after our nasty argument with George III to have competing powers so that we would always have a counter-balance to anything that’s going on in the government,” the retired Marine general continued. “And so we’re watching this play out in, in a rather historic moment in our country’s life. We’ll have to see how it plays out, but the Constitution is showing that it’s a very hearty document, I think right now, that it can hold fast, even against turmoil such as we’re experiencing today.”
Mattis also expressed confidence in the abilities of Congress, saying his experience testifying to them as head of central command and the Department of Defense show they are “unintimidated by the most complex subjects, they will go drill down on things, whether I think they’re important or not.”
