Jim Mattis Joins Mark Esper in Condemning Trump

Just days after the current Secretary of Defense Mark Esper spoke out against Trump’s handling of the protests in Washington D.C. and around the country, one of his predecessors has joined the fray, issuing a scathing criticism of Trump’s actions.

I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words "Equal Justice Under Law" are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand — one that all of us should be able to get behind. […]

When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that "America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat." […]

Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that "The Nazi slogan for destroying us ... was 'Divide and Conquer.' Our American answer is 'In Union there is Strength.'" […]

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. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. […]

We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.

So I guess Jim Mattis has been brainwashed and is now a super lib? Or he’s bitter that Trump fired him? Stay tuned for the display of mental gymnastics by the GOP as they try to rationalize this one without considering that maybe Trump himself could be the problem.