president is saying mattis is retiring. the real question is this. is donald trump forcing jim mattis out? has he essentially fired him, or has jim mattis tonight fallen on his sword and said you ve made these decisions. i cannot honorably stay on the job. that s the question, wolf. earlier he appears to have been humiliated by the president of the united states with the decision to withdraw the 2,000 u.s. troops from syria, plus us a correctly point out, i know jake tapper has been reporting the president seems to be on the verge of doing something similar withdrawing many of the 14,000 u.s. troops from afghanistan as well. we ll see what happens to those 5,000 troops in iraq. clear lit president is not happy having any of those troops in any of those countries. stand by for a moment. jim acosta is over at the white house. all of a sudden we get this tweet from the president, jim, that mattis is out. reporter: that s right, wolf, and somebody who is a very key
and it is those local troops that the u.s. troops are trying to help out. it is those local troops who have been fighting and dying so much, and that is something that appeals to jim mattis military sense of honor. if he had made a promise to stay with them hand help stay with them and help them fight on, hundreds of afghan forces have died trying to fight. more than a thousand u.s.-backed forces in syria. mattis is an emotional human being. he likes to come across as cold and calculated. he s a deeply emotional man and feels a great sense of military honor, and if he could not look those forces in the eye that the u.s. had promised to stay and help, i don t see how he could have stayed on the job. so this is this is quite ma shocking development because the
out of syria, that he was very concerned about the kurds who are the allies inside syria in a the u.s. had pledged to maintain a relationship with and help them fight isis. we know that tonight the president is considering pulling troops, some troops out of having. that will make afghan local forces very vulnerable. it will embolden isis. there is no question about it. it will imbolden the taliban. these are all safe havens that the u.s. has struggled to try and control. i go back to what i think is so important for everyone to understand. jim mattis is someone who very much stands on his character, his ethics and feels responsibility to the troops for 40 years on a deeply emotional basis. all of his tough guy image is
withdrawing from afghanistan have been the final straw for him. it sounds he was totally fed up and couldn t take it anymore. i was struck by how substantive the letter was. and frnkly of the entirety of the trump presidency over the past two years. he talks about the need to strengthen nato and treating allies with respect. he talked specifically about the defeat isis coalition which president trump announced the u.s. was pulling back from in syria this week. this is not just mattis getting fed up with being pushed to the side by trump. this is mattis saying i can t do the foreign policy that you want anymore. and i think it s an important moment for trump. for a long time he had surrounded himself by generals, by military officers who he had deferred to. this week really marks a turning point. those folks are all gone now. mattis was the last one. and president trump is taking his own counsel on foreign policy matters. now there is no one left with that kind of experience around
he s served this country so well. he understands the role of being secretary of defense which is to serve the commander in chief. while i m deeply disappointed for him leaving, i applaud his leadership, and i know this president will pick swufnt same caliber to serve in that position moving forward. the president too long ago says he knows more about these kinds of military situations, the operations, whether in prauk or afghanistan or syria, he knows more than the generals know, so here s the question. you say the president will get an excellent new defense secretary. why would an excellent new defense secretary want to go into a position where the president of the united states believes he knows more with these kinds of military operations than the generals know? well, why that s a great question, wolf, but answer is simple. the same reason that secretary mattis stepped up to the plate to serve in in position. any of us who have worn the uniform will step up and serve in any wa