On Thursday, Yahoo News reported that former Secretary of Defense James Mattis accused Donald Trump of “fomenting” the violent invasion of the U.S. Capitol that left five dead.
“Speaking during an online event, Mattis walked through a list of national security threats such as North Korea, Russia, China and international terrorism, but then turned his attention to the U.S.,” reported Sean Naylor. “‘There are also internal threats right now,’ he said, citing ‘the lack of unity on the consensual underpinnings of our democracy, and what we saw on Jan. 6, fomented by a sitting president.'”
Mattis, who served as Trump’s first Defense Secretary, had a perpetually rocky relationship with the former president. According to Watergate journalist Bob Woodward, he left the White House when Trump demanded he withdraw troops fighting ISIS in the Middle East, something he described as “felony stupid.”
In June 2020, Mattis, made headlines for publicly warning his former boss was a threat to the Constitution, writing, “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people … 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.”