Monday on CNN’s “New Day,”a former Republican House Intelligence Committee chairman and network national security commentator Mike Rogers said the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis will leave a “mark” on President Donald Trump.
Rogers said, “I think this one is going to leave a mark on the president, for a whole host of reasons. If you read that Mattis letter, I think this is why Republicans are getting so concerned, it was more than just about Afghanistan or Syria. It was that for sure, I think that was the tipping point. If you look back, Mattis was the one who had to go to Japan and reassure our allies after kind of the giveaway to North Korea on troop discussions there and training exercises. He immediately left for Japan to try to fix that problem. Pulling out of the INF with the Russians and now the Russians running around, saying this is going to cause a nuclear problem, which could have been okay if there was a strategy to follow it. There wasn’t and Mattis was the one trying to put this all back together.”
He continued, “Then abandoning our allies and alliances in Syria and Afghanistan was probably the last straw for General Mattis. Those Republicans in the national security space see this as a significant problem because, you know, listen, our safety and security is dependent on allies and allegiances around the in tough neighborhoods.”
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