General Mattis "angry and appalled" unleashes comments on Trump "threat to the constitution"

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Fox News:

6/3/20

Mattis 'angry and appalled’ as he unloads on Trump, says president ‘does not try to unite the American people'

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mattis-angry-and-appalled-as-he-unloads-on-trump-says-president-does-not-try-to-unite-the-american-people

The Atlantic

6/3/20

by Jeffrey Goldberg

James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution

In an extraordinary condemnation, the former defense secretary backs protesters and says the president is trying to turn Americans against one another.

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...In Union There Is Strength

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. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation....

...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 can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society...

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/james-mattis-denounces-trump-protests-militarization/612640/

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Thank you for posting this. I want to include this part:

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... In his statement, Mattis makes it clear that the president’s response to the police killing of George Floyd, and the ensuing protests, triggered this public condemnation.

“When I joined the military, some 50 years ago,” he writes, “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.”...

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/james-mattis-denounces-trump-protests-militarization/612640/

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Unprecedented and dangerous times with an unprecedented and dangerous president in control of the country.

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Thinking back to Trumps Statement "What do you have to loose?"

Quite a lot these days.

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/02/metro/remember-when-trump-vowed-end-american-carnage/

Trump has made things worse...

He didn't start the pandemic, he made it worse.

He didn't start racism, he makes it worse.

He didn't start income and wealth inequality, he and his policies make it worse.

He didn't start white supremacy groups, he makes them worse.

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Always liked mattis, cerebral guy. His book, call sign chaos, is a great read. Especially if you’re in management as it’s all about leadership.

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Trump finds an unexpected center of resistance: the Pentagon

  • Trump’s Defense secretary, Mark Esper, rebuffed the president’s threat to deploy active-duty soldiers into American cities to quell the protests that have erupted since the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. He ordered regular Army units that were rushed to Washington early in the week to return to their bases in New York and North Carolina, de-escalating the sense of armed siege in the nation’s capital. He also directed National Guard troops to patrol the city without weapons, despite Trump’s direction that they be “heavily armed.”
  • Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also weighed in, warning that the U.S. armed forces will not allow themselves to be used against nonviolent protests. Every member of the U.S. military swears an oath to support and defend the Constitution, he wrote his commanders, “including the right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.”
  • The chiefs of staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force issued similar messages, reinforcing their fidelity to the Constitution and pledging to battle racism in their ranks...
  • ... Milley’s predecessor as chairman of the Joint Chiefs, retired Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, warned that Trump’s threat to use troops would damage trust in the armed forces. “Our fellow citizens are not the enemy,” he wrote.

“I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump — I have the tough people,” the president bragged in 2019...

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-06-07/column-trump-finds-an-unexpected-center-of-resistance-the-pentagon

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Read: Former Republican National Security Officials for Biden

https://www.defendingdemocracytogether.org/national-security/

Some of the names listed:

Gen. Michael Hayden -Fmr Director of the CIA and the NSA

Sen. Chuck Hagel - Fmr Secretary of Defense and US Senator

Adm. Kenneth Bernard - Fmr Special Asst to the President

Amb. John Negroponte - Fmr Director of National Intelligence, and Fmr Deputy Secretary of State

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Trump's "I love my General's" no more....

Former NSA and CIA Director Hayden now supporting Bidden  with moving endorsement.

 

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