under attack in a number of years. reporter: current contenders to replace general mattis at the pentagon include general jack keane, fox news contributor, who already intimated he s not interested in the job. senator tom cotton, former army captain who served in iraq and afghanistan and is opposed to pulling out of syria and patrick shanahan, one of the loan supporters of donald trump s space force which much of the pentagon opposed. recent military times poll showed general mattis enjoy the 24% approval rating among american troops. heather: the wall street journal publishing and editorial on the repercussions of general mattis s resignation saying in part, quote, cabinet officers come and go in washington with little lasting political impact. the resignation of jim mattis thursday strikes us as a major political event that is likely to revert for the rest of donald trump s term and damage