really heard during the trump era where generally disagreements have been kept below board. what have you been hearing from your former colleagues? it seems like there s a deeper level of concern reflected in this strategic decision. i think this one is going to leave a mark on the president, for a whole host of reasons. if you read that mattis letter this is why republicans are getting so concerned. it was broader than just afghanistan and syria. it was that for sure. i think that was the tipping point. if you look back, mattis was the one who had to go to japan and reassure our allies after kind of the giveaway to north korea on troop discussions there and training exercises. he immediately left for japan to try to fix that problem. pulling out of the inf with the russians and now the russians running around, saying this is going to cause a nuclear problem, which could have been okay if there was a strategy to follow it. there wasn t and mattis was the one trying to put this all
congress. i can t recall a time where in the first two years of this presidency where you had so many republican lawmakers who were expressing their concerns openly and on the record to josh s point, you heard this privately for a couple of years now. lots of eye rolling, snickering, lots of sort of wtf. we ve not sort of seen this on the record like we did last friday. not just from bob corker who, of course, relishes now poking president trump and trump swipes back. they ve had this on again, off again feud. but from rank and file senators like bill cassidy from louisiana. pat roberts from kansas, who are not typically often critics of this president who do not like what they have seen. josh is right, the mattis resignation over the abrupt syria resignation. the question is, what does that add up to besides rhetorical condemnations? it s not clear to me yet but we are at a point now where you do
in congress pushing up against a democratic president. these three shutdowns, as jess just pointed out, have occurred with republican unified control of washington. what is the message that the republicans aren t getting about governing that they re doing this to themselves and the country? well, i think republicans have to be very sensitive to this point. this is not simply about a government shutdown at this point. there seems to be, you know, a real concern about the crisis in the white house, with the resignation and the repudiation of mattis, the trump doctrine on foreign policy. a lot of people believe there s a crisis. you look what s happening with the syria, the very abrupt, precipitous pullout in syria, mattis resignation. it feels like wheels are coming off the wagon, there s no real good path forward. as republicans we have to step up and say we are the party of
strategy around some of these decisions. it s more important than certainly the president is more important than a party, it s the heart and soul of the united states strategy to make sure we re safe in the long run. general clark, mike just mentioned the kurds. as we discussed the alienation or abandonment of allies, that s what you re hearing most of, mattis expressing real concern not only about the honor of keeping our commitment but our kurdish allies who we have been training and fighting with may be being set up for a slaughter. how concerned are you about that? i m very concerned about it. the kurds have lived in a tough neighborhood for generations. we ve been supporting them since 1991, at the end of the gulf war, almost 30 years of strong u.s. support. they re going to have to find other friends and allies. they re going to have to work their way through an aaccommodatiako
allies and alliances in syria and afghanistan was probably the last straw for general mattis. those republicans in the national security space see this as a significant problem because, you know, listen, our safety and security is dependent on allies and allegiances around the world, especially in tough neighborhoods. when you re willing on a whim and not consult with anyone to undo those alliances and it was announced on the day that the kurds were engaged in a major offensive. once that was completed, would have led to more stability in syria. it was announced that day, when they had troops moving out in combat, contacting with the enemy. again, all of that together was probably too much for general mattis, as it should have been. and republicans are now looking at this saying hey, we re going to need to be more engaged in this national security effort and let s try to put some