Senator Contends National Security Could Be Threatened Without Mattis by Claudia Grisales - Stars & Stripes
U.S. national security would suffer greatly without Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and several top Pentagon leaders slated to leave their posts next year, a key senator said Wednesday.
Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised Mattis’ experience in light of President Donald Trump’s comments that the defense secretary was a “sort of a Democrat” and could leave his post.
A possible Mattis departure is more detrimental with Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson slated to leave their posts next year, Reed added.
“In order to maintain continuity in the Department of Defense, (Mattis’) presence is going to be absolutely critical,” the Rhode Island senator told reporters attending a breakfast roundtable at the Fairmont Washington DC Hotel Georgetown. “If he is going and there’s another secretary of defense, you are going to see next year be kind of like everybody new around the water cooler trying to figure out where the bathroom is. That’s not going to be good for national defense.”…