Tag: Secretary of Defense

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All 10 Living Defense Secretaries Warn Against Using Military In Election Disputes

Defense Department

Photo of U.S. military service member
(image: public domain/WhiteHouse/Flickr)
All 10 living former U.S. defense secretaries – Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Mark Esper, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, James Mattis, Leon Panetta, William Perry, and Donald Rumsfeld – have penned an op-ed for the Washington Post saying involving the military in election disputes would cross into dangerous territory.

As former secretaries of defense, we hold a common view of the solemn obligations of the U.S. armed forces and the Defense Department. Each of us swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We did not swear it to an individual or a party.

American elections and the peaceful transfers of power that result are hallmarks of our democracy. With one singular and tragic exception that cost the lives of more Americans than all of our other wars combined, the United States has had an unbroken record of such transitions since 1789, including in times of partisan strife, war, epidemics and economic depression. This year should be no exception.

Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.

Read the full op-ed at the Washington Post.

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Trump Kicks Defense Sec Mattis To The Curb Two Months Early

Donald Trump kicks Mattis to the curb early

We’ve heard reports for days now that Donald Trump is super-mad that outgoing Secretary of Defense James Mattis (who resigned this week because Trump unilaterally decided to pull all troops out of Syria) called out the president’s “rejection of international allies and his failure to check authoritarian governments,” as the New York Times writes, in his resignation letter.

The goodbye letter led to mucho bad press for the Trumpster.

So much so that now he’s decided Mattis will now be gone as of January 1.

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Defense Secretary Mattis Was “Appalled” By Trump’s Transgender Ban Tweets

In announcing his ban on transgender service members in the U.S. military, Donald Trump made a point to say the decision was made “after consultation with my Generals and military experts,” but apparently Trump blind-sided just about every on his military team.

And what he didn’t make abundantly clear was the ban was actually was a snap maneuver to save money for his Mexican wall.

You know, the wall Mexico was going to pay for?

From the New York Times:

Mr. Trump made the declaration on Twitter, saying that American forces could not afford the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of transgender service members. He said he had consulted generals and military experts, but Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, was given only a day’s notice about the decision.

Mr. Trump elected to announce the ban in order to resolve a quietly brewing fight on Capitol Hill over whether taxpayer money should pay for gender transition and hormone therapy for transgender service members. The dispute had threatened to kill a $790 billion defense and security spending package scheduled for a vote this week.

But rather than addressing that narrow issue, Mr. Trump opted to upend the entire policy on transgender service members.

His decision was announced with such haste that the White House could not answer basic inquiries about how it would be carried out, including what would happen to openly transgender people on active duty. Of eight defense officials interviewed, none could say.

Mr. Mattis, who was on vacation, was silent on the new policy. People close to the defense secretary said he was appalled that Mr. Trump chose to unveil his decision in tweets, in part because of the message they sent to transgender active-duty service members, including those deployed overseas, that they were suddenly no longer welcome.

Repeat: “The defense secretary said he was appalled…”