and i think we re going to regret not having dealt with any of them. jim mattis was the kind of guy who would approach every problem with the accruity of a surgeon and start at the end and work backwards and what are we trying to accomplish and do we have the resources and how will be get it done. and with jim mattis done i m afraid we won t have that focus in an increasingly fragmented and difficult world. and i think he s going to be missed not just by the people in uniform, but by the nation altogether. eleanor clift, when you look at this and people are watching what is again i m going to commit another cliche, which is supposed to be a time when the news slows down toward the holidays, are we witnessing a worsening of trumpism and the leadership and the selfishness
given what we saw. we have reporting and we touched on this last night that the main thing driving donald trump back towards wanting the shutdown fight is the market crash as jim mattis leaves is criticism from fox and friends. yes, so he s paying attention to rush limbaugh andain colter and laura ingraham and the fact they could be running national policy and that he sits in his bedroom tweeting, it s really it s unworthy of this country. and i think jim mattis is a man of high moral character and great intelligence and with respect for tradition and his the contrast with trump you never know what the event is that will set things really spiraling out of control. but i do think his departure combined with irrational government shutdown, the tumbling of the stock market could finally begin to unmoor
have to do when when they get back. they have a new interior and now need a new secretary of defense. and general mattis, without the exception of mitch mcconnell married to a cabinet secretary, every senators favorite secretary and losing him up here will shake the confidence that donald trump needs to do his agenda going forward and that includes the wall. the idea this will be a fight over the holidays, he s going to be fighting that alone on the senate side. he has allies in the house but the idea this will get muscled through over christmas break with folks heading for the break, i don t see it. stay with me. i want to go to sam cedar on the liberal democratic strategy here. because you ve covered this a long time. you have a point of view on this. and there was a time when democrats didn t seem to have the strength for these fights. do you think we re witnessing the nancy pelosi strategy, make him own it and don t back down? yeah, i think so.
well i m shaken by the news because of the patriot that general secretary mattis is. i think that everybody in the country should read his letter of resignation. it is a letter of great patriotism, respect for the president, but also a statement of his values, where he talks about the strength of our nation is intrinsically linked to the unique and comprehensive system of alliances that we have. that he talks about we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach though the countries whose strategic interest are increasingly with intent to tensions with ours. the list is it is a beautiful letter about again our values as a nation in terms of our national security written by a patriotic american who was a comfort to many of us as a voice of stability in the trump
so it is some form of resignation or protest or firing, but either way, major and one of the people that was held out as part of the civil and military service that were the guard rails. we have a lot in our show as you did, chuck, thank you so much. thank you, sir. you heard it right there. we are in the middle of what is, and i mean this literally, one of the wildest days of a very wild presidency. jim mattis announcing formally he s stepping down in february. as i was just discussing with chuck todd, my colleague. this is about disagreements with the commander-in-chief, it is also early reporting suggests another ousting. trump also on the verge of personally unilaterally being the force that shuts down your united states government, heading into the holidays, for no apparent reason. again that is the clearest way we can put it. he wants a wall but refused to negotiate to get what chuck schumer offered. this hour we re expected to hear live from nancy pelosi and chuck