Between President Trump and American Service members is walking away. Defense secretary jim mattis is leaving the administration in what the New York Times calls an extraordinary rebuke of the president. From the washington post, the president has single handedly propelled the u. S. Government into crisis. The wall street journal editorialal board is sounding the alarm and former defense secretary and cia chief leon panetta says the constant state of chaos immediate may satisfy the president s need for attention, but it is raising hell with the country. Welcome to morning joe. It is friday, december 21st. With us, we have National Affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc and cohost and executive producer of showtimes the circus john highlyman, republican strategist Susan Delpercio, author of the book a world in disarray richard haass, editor of commentary magazine and columnist New York Post john pedoritz, now chief international and security diplomacyist james stevritis and former u. S. Ambassador to nato, former state Department SpokesmanNicholas Burns joins us this morning. Hes professor of security and International Relations at the Harvard School of government. It has been quite a week. Yesterday was quite a day. You have the markets obviously becoming more unstable. You have mueller closing in. You have Senate Republicans in open revolt more and more by the day. You have Vladimir Putin gaining a wider control of the middle east, kept out of the middle east since 1973. Now donald trump is turning it over to Vladimir Putin. And you have america, mika, in retreat across the globe and the most extraordinary resignation in modern american historiel, certainly in the past 40 years. What an incredible week its been. So were going to get to that resignation and specifically the Resignation Letter from defense secretary james mattis in just a moment. Its staggering. But first, were now 701 days into the Trump Presidency. And we want to begin by recapping just one week in this administration, one week. Apparently an administration unraveling from within. As probes expanded into more of the president s political business and foreign ties on friday, a week ago today, his search for a new chief of staff failed, resulting in an interim pick, one who we found had to called trump a, quote, terrible human being right before the 2016 election. On friday, ryan zinke resigned hope to go ward off investigations from the newly empowered House Democrats. That was followed by the president lashing out on twitter calling his former attorney a rat and bashing the fbi. On monday, the markets continued their slide into the worst december since the great depression. The Senate Intelligence committee reported that social media povts by russians aimed at helping trump continued into his administration. This time, attacking Robert Mueller. Monday saw indictments in a turkey scheme involving former National Security adviser Michael Flynn, who on tuesday cuesed by a judge of selling outs his country. And warned to cooperate more with the special counsel or face jail thyime. Then on wednesday, President Trump tweeted seemingly ow of the blue for a full withdrawal from syria taking the pentagon by surprise and infur yatdiiati republicans on capitol hill. Yesterday, trump blew up a deal to fund the government over conservative criticism on a border wall and that brings us to the secretary of defense resigning in protest of the president s world view, the first time that has ever happened. It was an incredible week. The pentagon Spokesman Says secretary mattis visited the white house on thursday afternoon, met with President Trump and hand delivered a letter of resignation dated yesterday. It came as the president doubled down on his syria withdrawal. And reports emerged of a major pullout from afghanistan. The letter includes none of the usual thanks and praise for the president s leadership or accomplishments nor even a salutation at the end. Here we go. Quote, one core belief i have always held is that our strength as a nation is inex trickbly linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. Similarly, i believe we must be resolution and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose Strategic Interests are increasingly intention with ours. It is clear that china and russia, for example, want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model, gaining Veto Authority over other nations economic, diplomatic and security decisions, to promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors, america and our allies. That is why we must use all the tools of American Power to provide for the common defense. My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear eyed about both maligneed actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. Because you have the right to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other ujts is, i believe it is right for me to step down from my position. Mattis gave an end date for his tenure of february 28th. Admiral, your reaction to yesterdays events and the departure of if the james mattis. You know, ive known jim mattis for decades, of course. And when he was a colonel, his call sign was not mad dog. His actual call sign was chaos, which stands for colonel has an outstanding solution. It was an affectionate term for a full colonel who flew around the battlefield and inflicted chaos on his opponents. Thats a pretty appropriate word for today. And i think the thing to key in on here is that letter. The three salient points are allies, partners and france. This network that our country enjoys that he saw being taken apart. Number two is the rise of strategic competitors, russia, china, and in particular the way were essentially ceding the middle east to russia. Deep, deep concern to jim. And thirdly, not staying firm, going after terror, the maligned actors piece. So allies, partners, friends, strategic competitors and going after the terrorists, the last one to be to pull out of syria and the supposedly planned pullout of afghanistan. Those ought to worry us deeply because thats how were going to see the return of global terrorism the leaving that zone open. Mattis saw all of that. I think he wanted to stay, but he realized as we talked about yesterday on the program, joe and mika, that to stay any longer, he would have been an enabler. He had to make that choice. It was a terrible choice for james mattis. I feel for him with all my heart. But he made the right choice, in my view. Ambassador nick burns, Something Like this haevent happened in over 40 years. It happens very rarely that you have a cabinet official departing an administration in protest. But it certainly happened yesterday with jim mattis. The language was searing and anybody thats been covering the news over the past two years, our watching the news couldnt have missed his mattis reference to russia and that he sees russia as an enemy and hes disappointed in the fact that donald trump doesnt understand that. Well, youre right, joe. This was a letter of protest. And it was also a letter of principal. And secretary mattis is reminding the president , but also reminding all of us of whats really important for the United States overseas, that we have to be committed to our allies and President Trump, of course, is the weakest american president to ever lead the Nato Alliance and hes made the eu into a competitor. And mattis also said that russia and china are our adversaries and we have to stand up to them and we have to have strong and consistent policies and President Trump has been the weakest american president in trying to oppose Vladimir Putin. Hes cozied up to putin. This is going to hurt the United States because jim mattis was the strongest member of the cabinet, the most experienced member of the cabinet. Had the most credibility with the rest of the world. The person that people felt could restrain this feckless and cynical president. So his absence after february 28th is going to hurt our country. Youve seen already the damage hes done in announcing the pull out from syria, a gift you to putin and the iranians and hezbollah. Now this damage hes done trying to get the taliban to compromise with us. Why would they compromise with us when they know were going to be leaving both in afghanistan and syria . So a very consequential loss for us. Pritchard haass, the ambassador used the term feckless to describe donald trump. Its ironic that a man who campaigned on strength has, in fact, become the most feckless and weak president since the well, world war ii. You look at what he has done. Hes pulling out of syria. Hes ceding it to the iranians, isis and russia. Hes pulling out of afghanistan. Hes his ambassador said hes basically blown up our negotiations with the taliban to try to negotiate a peace and hes sent a message such that now the North Koreans are saying theyre going to back away with any general deals they had made with this white house before. What is next . The its often said the truth is the First Casualty of war. The First Casualty is americas reputation. And any anything we have for dependability, for reliability, has been shredded. What were doing to the kurds will be case 1. More broadly, afghanistan may be two. Weve had the problems with our closest allies in europe. But i think when others look at it, i wouldnt be shocked if in the next couple of days, we saw a north korean proposal that linked some products of getting rid of missiles to the mass reduction of american true presence in south korea. And donald trump, for all i know, might be tempted by it. Hes seen the costs in burdens of American Leadership as outweighing the benefits. On one level, this is totally consistent with what i think is a seriously flawed and misguided view. He doesnt seem to understand that when bad things happening in the world, his goal of making America Great again could be fatally compromised. He talked about, you know, giving up you know, weve defeated the terrorists. Well, terrorists are not defeated. Theres no battleship missouri signing ceremony in the war against isis or anybody else. They will reconstitute and last time they came after us from afghanistan, could be afghanistan again, could be syria, could be 25 other places. So this is an ongoing process. Essentially, he wants to opt out again in this misguided idea that we can be safe here at home. And i think we are going to pay the price for this for basically years to come. This has now become a truly consequential presidency, but not in the way any of us want to see. John highlymeilm hayheilmann remind myself that everybody is doing their best all the time, and they have been. But could this be a turning point in their relationship with trump . Losing mattis is losing a the significant dose of sanity in the white house. Could this be an inflexion point with the republicans as it pertain toes th pertains to this president . It could be. And i think its one in a cascading series of flexion points. When the history of all this is written, you will start with the blue wave that happened in november that made clear that the president s political strength was much overstated and that the cost of sticking with donald trump are higher than people thought in that for a lot of Senate Republicans who had looked at the first two years and made certain calculations about what the price would be to part with trump, they now recognize that the calculus is changing and that there is less cost to leaving him, parting ways with him than there is to sticking with him. And then you have these other sequential things happening. The Mueller Investigation may be coming to a climax and that trump is vulnerable on multiple fronts along with his family. Now you have this resignation historic in the way that joe suggested that i think for a lot of republicans who in the senate who looked at mattis as the guardrail, as the i hate the phrase adult in the room. Im not going the use it. Because i think it the diminishes others by not calling them adults it makes them seem as though they shouldnt be responsible for their actions. But certainly a mature guiding force. Theres a lot of americans now who are scared at what theyre seeing. Phrase you used at the top, mika, when you said unraveling, i think that is a sense that a lot of people have right now about the presidency and even people who would like to see who think it would be best for the country if donald trump not be president , but not reach the end of his term, i think people are now going to start to get to grips with the notion that the unraveling of the presidency is an ugly thing. Its a dangerous and destabilizing thing on the global stage and other places. We are starting to see it right now and people are going to have to brace themselves because this is just the start of the destabilization and the ugliness. Last night, the majority leader senator Mitch Mcconnell who has been very careful to not criticize donald trump issued a statement with a direct message to the president that echoed mattiss call to support our allies. Mitch wrote this. Quote, i believe its essential that the United States maintain and strengthen the post world war ii ally yapians that have b carefully built by leaders in both parties. We must also maintain a cleareyed understanding of our friends and foes and russia are among the latter. So i was sorry to learn that secretary mattis, who shares those clear principals, will soon part the administration. But i am particularly distressed that he is resigning due to his sharp differences with the president on these and other key aspects of americas global leadership. It is regrettable that the president must now choose a new secretary of defense. But i urge him to select a leader who shares secretary mattiss understanding of these vital principles and his total commitment to Americas Servicemembers. John, its almost as if republicans if awakened from a long dream, sort of a while you were sleeping dream and understood yesterday that donald trump actually his Foreign Policy at least is bad for americas longterm national interests. I think mcconnells statement is fascinating. What mattis state in his statement is trump has a mature, fully formed Foreign Policy opinion with which he disagrees and that he can no longer count nance that is contrary to mattis understanding. Calling on trump to hire another mattis who does not share trumps views seems to me to be a fools errand. Trump has decided for whatever reason to take charge of his Foreign Policy, not to listen to his experts and to fulfill his Campaign Promises no matter what. So i dont know whether you know, it might be better for trump and for america to have a secretary of defense who will flesh this out to the degree that trump needs. Because this is what we have. This is what we are going to have. And mattis but john, you made a fascinating if fascinating insight that Mitch Mcconnell letter. You have james mattis saying, mr. President , i disagree with you. I have to leave. I disagree with your policies. And then you have the majority leader saying, and now, mr. President , i expect you to select another secretary of defense who disagrees with your Foreign Policy. Right. And last week, if james mattis goes, who is coming in . I think the general consensus is senator the if Lindsey Graham would be the next secretary of defense. Its one of the things hes been angling for. I dont see how he can, after the mattis letter, how exactly and what he said yesterday about the syrian withdraw, i dont see how he can be the secretary of defense in any way, shape or form. I mean, he has a direct contradictory Foreign Policy view from the president of the United States. And thats where we stand. I disagree with you. Everybody here seems to disagree with it. It doesnt matter whether we disagree with it. He was elected and i think the fascinating thing you pointed to the weakness question. Whats so striking is that the reporting suggested that he decided to pull out of syria because he had a phone call with president erdogan with turkey who said we are going after the syrian kurds. You americans better get out of the way. And the president of the United States, rather than saying dont you tell me to get out of the way, we will stop you, we are there and we will stop you from harassing and killing our allies, the syrian kurds, decided to pull our troops out. That yeah. Think about that for a minute. That is an astounding piece of weakness. Again, to think about look at helsinki, how weak he was, how he shamed himself and he shamed americans in helsinki. Look a