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Until now, Jim Mattis had been unwilling to criticise his former boss. Ron Sachs/PA Images

Former Pentagon chief launches blistering attack on Trump for trying to 'divide' America

James Mattis said the tear gassing of peaceful protesters to allow a Trump photo op was an “abuse of executive authority”.

FORMER PENTAGON CHIEF Jim Mattis issued a stinging rebuke of his erstwhile boss Donald Trump last night, accusing the president of trying to “divide” America and failing to provide “mature leadership” as the country reels from days of protests.

Mattis, who resigned in December 2018 over Trump’s ordering of a full troop withdrawal from Syria, also voiced support for the demonstrators whose anti-racism rallies have roiled the country.

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try,” Mattis wrote in a blistering statement posted online by The Atlantic.

“Instead, he tries to divide us,” added the retired Marine general, who had previously argued it would be inappropriate for him to criticise a sitting president.

“We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership,” he stated.

Mattis described himself as “angry and appalled” after witnessing events of the last week, which saw Trump threaten a military crackdown on American citizens as nationwide protests turned violent in some cities.

The fury was ignited by the 25 May killing of George Floyd, a black man who suffocated beneath the knee of a white police officer, and whose agonizing death was filmed by bystanders.

The demonstrations have mostly been peaceful, but some have degenerated into violence and looting as night falls.

Mattis wrote that the protesters’ call for equal justice was a “wholesome and unifying demand”.

And he slammed the decision to use force to clear peaceful protesters from near the White House on Monday to allow Trump to pose for photographs at a nearby damaged church, calling it an “abuse of executive authority”.

The photo op has become a lightning rod for criticism of Trump’s handling of the crisis, with religious leaders, politicians, and onlookers around the country expressing outrage.

“When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” Mattis stated.

“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.”

Trump dismissed Mattis with a tweet, rehashing his claim that he “essentially” fired his Pentagon chief.

“Probably the only thing Barack Obama and I have in common is that we both had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world’s most overrated General,” the president wrote.

Mattis was head of US Central Command when Obama fired him in 2013 over his hawkish views on Iran.

‘We can unite without him’

For months after Mattis resigned, he refused to criticise Trump publicly, insisting the military must remain apolitical.

Yesterday’s statement appeared to signal that he no longer felt bound by that sentiment, as he called for solidarity – with or without the president.

“We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society,” Mattis wrote.

He also appeared to rebuke current Pentagon chief Mark Esper, without specifically naming him.

“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate,’” he said.

Esper faced criticism after telling US governors on Monday that they should “dominate the battlespace” to end the protests.

Yesterday, the Pentagon chief backtracked, telling reporters: “In retrospect, I would use different wording.”

© – AFP 2020

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    Mute Barry
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    Jun 4th 2020, 7:10 AM

    The Trump Presdency is crumbling before our eye’s,

    334
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    Mute Football in the Groin
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    Jun 4th 2020, 8:24 AM

    @Barry: You’d hope so. My only worry is now that he has gone full dictator will an election even go ahead? Will he allow it? Or if it does and he loses, will he accept the result? It’s going to get messy.

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    Mute Brian Dunne
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    Jun 4th 2020, 8:28 AM

    @Barry: hopefully. But how much damage will he do going out?

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    Mute Fintan O'flaois
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    Jun 4th 2020, 8:59 AM

    @Football in the Groin: Any power pertaining to the timing of the presidential election is solely vested in the houses of congress – Trump has no power whatsoever relating to this matter.
    Stop engaging in baseless sensationalism, it does nothing but widen division.

    23
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    Mute Diarmuid
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    Jun 4th 2020, 9:01 AM

    @Football in the Groin: outside of the US, virtually everyone wants Trump to lose in November. Yet within the US I’d say it’s 50/50 on him been re-elected or not. Which I find astonishing but it shows how divided the US has become under trump

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    Mute Football in the Groin
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    Jun 4th 2020, 9:54 AM

    @Fintan O’flaois: Yeah, I wasn’t trying to widen division, stop putting words in other people’s mouths, it does nothing but widen division.

    34
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    Mute Phily Mc
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    Jun 4th 2020, 2:55 PM

    @Diarmuid: I’m on the us its not 50/50 at all his disapproval rating is at %54 which I believe is the highest ever at this point in a presidents 1sr term and that number will go up

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    Mute Sean Fahey
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    Jun 4th 2020, 7:41 PM

    @Football in the Groin: He has no power. VP Pence is responsible for the entire corona virus response, Trump constantly criticizes his own recommendations and decisions from the White House, clearly showing he’s no longer in charge.

    He’s a mad man, he scraped through the last election with all the element of surprise and no track record to defend other than unprotected sex with a porn star while his pregnant wife was at home then buying her silence, lying about it, being caught and continuing to lie about it, how were those voters to know that was going to be a pattern?

    At this point I don’t give him much chance at the polls, he’s lost so much support, I think and hope it might be a complete humiliation, I don’t think holding onto power will be a conversation he’ll be having.

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    Mute Wade Wilson
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    Jun 4th 2020, 7:09 AM

    General ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis is revered among all the current and many of the former US military plus a large portion of the GOP. Attacking him will no go down well with a large part of Trumps own political party and base not to mention all the troops who served under him in the Middle East.

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    Mute Barry
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    Jun 4th 2020, 7:13 AM

    @Wade Wilson: Spot on,
    Therre is a chance that if somehow Trump gets his way and orders military action to be taken on US soil that many military officers will simply refuse to comply with the order.

    Or they will go to the streets and then simply stand with the protesters and do nothing.

    Very good odds of this,

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    Mute Willie Murphy
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    Jun 4th 2020, 7:15 AM

    @Wade Wilson: But do you still get that sick feeling in your stomach, when you think that he might, just might get back in? I do… Hopefully there’ll be a lot more like Mattis speaking out over the next few months.

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    Mute Wade Wilson
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    Jun 4th 2020, 7:28 AM

    @Willie Murphy: Trump is losing by double digits in all the swing states. The former Bush administration has setup a superpac to support Biden. GW has spoken out against Trump now. There are two other major superpacs made of lifelong GOP donars who are running ads for Biden. His own party wants him out. I don’t see him winning.

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    Mute Nowa Huta
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    Jun 4th 2020, 7:30 AM
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    Mute David A. Murray
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    Jun 4th 2020, 7:59 AM

    @Nowa Huta: Do you want to address Mattis’ argument about the use of US military against civilians in contravention of the US Constitution.

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    Mute Chrissy Beanz
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    Jun 4th 2020, 8:10 AM

    @Wade Wilson: You mean all those that survived…

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    Mute Nowa Huta
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    Jun 4th 2020, 10:24 AM

    @David A. Murray: why should i? I merely pointed out that he is a war monger that destroyed millions of lives in Iraq so listening to him pontificate about US soldiers being used to restore law and order being wrong is quite a farce. Your leaping to his defence says more about you and how selective faux outrage is just because your social media “friends/influencers” aren’t talking about it you couldn’t care less about the victim’s of Mattis.

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    Mute Dave Thomas
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    Jun 4th 2020, 4:56 PM

    @David A. Murray: of course not. Deflecting is much better.

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    Mute RobPup
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    Jun 4th 2020, 8:27 AM

    Now that the US is a failed state with a dictatorial regime in power that uses the military and law enforcement to brutally suppress peaceful protest and political dissent: when are we invading? I mean, that is what they do right? By their own standards, a full invasion of the US to restore democratic rule is now 100% warranted. I demand NATO to arrange this without delay.

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    Mute Sophie Mullervey
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    Jun 4th 2020, 9:15 AM

    @RobPup: I second that demand, the US needs NATO to oust Trump and restore democracy

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    Mute Garry Coll
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    Jun 4th 2020, 10:10 AM

    @RobPup:
    The Americans have an effective way of replacing leaders that they dislike or who lose their confidence and trust.
    It is called an Election, there is one coming up in November when President Trump’s term of office is over.

    In any case it’s hardly likely that NATO will accede to your demand, it is America after all, whoever might be President, that pays it’s bills

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    Mute Nowa Huta
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    Jun 4th 2020, 10:27 AM

    @RobPup: good God i hope this is sarcasm? If not i am sorry that you slipped through the education system and the board of education has failed you

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    Mute Seriousnojoke
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    Jun 4th 2020, 10:49 AM

    @Garry Coll: Naive. Election is what made the USA the way it is today. Racism, inequality, rich-poor disparity, none of these problems have been fixed by so many elections. And with their media and social media the divisiveness is only getting worse. Even someone like Trump got elected but that only means more than half of the Americans (by popular vote) hate their president and nothing else.

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    Mute Garry Coll
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    Jun 4th 2020, 12:16 PM

    @Seriousnojoke:
    Perhaps I am naive in my thoughts about the effectiveness of democratic elections.
    After all the example this country is setting is hardly stellar, a caretaker Taoiseach for two and a half years, then an election, followed by a full caretaker government for six months, while all the time nobody seems to care.
    On the others hand, the type of external military intervention that is being advocated by RobPup in his comment doesn’t have a great track record, and has at times proven to be counter productive.
    But if you have an alternative, maybe you could share it with us.

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    Mute RobPup
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    Jun 4th 2020, 6:05 PM

    @Garry Coll: But: ISN’T THAT WHAT THE GOVERNMENT OF EVERY COUNTRY THE US HAVE INVADED SAID WHILE MUHRICA RAINED BOMBS ON THEM, GARY????????

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    Mute Francis Mc Carthy
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    Jun 4th 2020, 7:30 AM

    Any news when the heavily armed militias will rise up against their tyrannical
    government ? Or do they only get out of their beds to get their nails done ?

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    Mute DJ François
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    Jun 4th 2020, 8:30 AM

    @Francis Mc Carthy: Too busy doing cosplay and faffing about with guns at town halls.

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    Mute Crispy Brown
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    Jun 4th 2020, 11:52 AM

    @DJ François: .

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    Mute Kartz
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    Jun 4th 2020, 8:23 AM

    If Trump loses the next election, he’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison or in the court room.

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    Mute John Moloney
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    Jun 4th 2020, 12:52 PM

    @Kartz: why would he spend the rest of his life in prison

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    Mute Seán Ó Briain
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    Jun 4th 2020, 1:10 PM

    @John Moloney: Because he’s a criminal.

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    Mute John Moloney
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    Jun 4th 2020, 1:29 PM

    @Seán Ó Briain: aren’t all US presidents criminals so why arent they all in prison

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    Mute Phily Mc
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    Jun 4th 2020, 3:03 PM

    @John Moloney: muller laid out the groundwork for trumps prosecution for obstruction of justice and campaign finance violations in his report for when after he’s out of office, muller believed a sitting president couldn’t be indicated so he didn’t, he also explicitly said the president is not exonerated, that’s why he’ll go to jail, just read the report it’s all in there. Also the southern district of NYC are after him aswell they’re like dogs after a cat, he’s in a lot of sh#t

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    Mute Michael Patrick Newell
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    Jun 4th 2020, 9:38 AM

    At this stage Trump and his Klan support will just dig in and do as much damage as possible before November. Trump doesn’t care what mess he leaves the country in, he can simply hop on a private jet and fly to some dictator country like Saudi Arabia, flash some cash and lay low for a while until the next lad puts out the flames on the burning United States

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    Mute Maurice Connors
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    Jun 4th 2020, 10:28 AM

    Very well done General Mattis. He was waiting for the moment to unleash on Trump and what a time to do it. Hopefully more will come out against Trump. Obama had to come out and speak for America as well. Trump is a wannabe dictator.

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    Mute Breda Kelly
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    Jun 4th 2020, 7:59 AM

    Esper next for the chop.

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    Mute Hans Vos
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    Jun 4th 2020, 2:19 PM

    Even now Trump is lying. He didn’t sack Matis .
    He resigned because he was not happy with Trump.

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    Mute Nigel o'Neill
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    Jun 4th 2020, 1:36 PM

    Well even Stevie Wonder could see he that’s what he is doing, but it’s a game changer, perhaps, that Mattis has called him out for it

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    Mute Micheal S. O' Ceilleachair
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    Jun 4th 2020, 9:33 AM

    America the land of the hyphenated!!!

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    Jun 4th 2020, 4:34 PM

    Gassing people for a photoshoot is even low for this guy

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    Mute John Byrne
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    Jun 4th 2020, 12:19 PM

    Him not being elected is not guaranteed, this President has the Right wing media, evangelists,gun lobby, nut jobs on his side

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    Mute Joseph Duggan
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    Jun 4th 2020, 11:40 AM

    All the militias are with trump plus evangelicals they have declared him as agod

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    Mute Mick.
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    Jun 4th 2020, 1:37 PM

    Gen Mattis’s letter last night reminds me of the speech from the film “Gladiator”, when Maximus was revealed to Emperor Commodus.
    Maximus.
    “I am Decimus Meridius Maximus, General of the Felix Legions, Husband to a murderd wife, father to a murdered son, General to a murderd Emperor, I will have vengeance in this world of the next.”
    Just put Mattis instead of Maximus and Trump instead of Commodus.
    Trump’s reaction would be the same as Commodus’s.

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    Mute James Walsh
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    Jun 4th 2020, 3:40 PM

    The real ‘Mad Dog’ in that administration is the one with the orange coat and vicious tendencies. Mathis actually seems quite reasonable

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    Mute WreckDefier
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    Jun 4th 2020, 5:27 PM

    Mattis obviously doesn’t know his country’s history.
    America was divided long before the American Civil War 1861-1865
    up to the present.

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    Mute Paul Whitehead
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    Jun 4th 2020, 5:04 PM

    Go on ya mad dog ya. Bite him in the orange nuts.

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