Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that he is ‘distressed’ over defense secretary Jim Mattis’ resignation after Mattis clashed with President Trump.
“I am particularly distressed that he is resigning due to sharp differences with the president,” the Senate leader said in a statement. “It is regrettable that the president must now choose a new Secretary of Defense.”
Mattis quit abruptly on Thursday after Trump’s unpopular decision to withdraw the over 2,000 American troops currently in Syria.
“Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position,” Mattis wrote in his shock resignation letter to Trump.
The retired four-star general had “vehemently opposed” the decision to withdraw from Syria, a move that was panned by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and other officials as imprudent.
“We cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies,” Mattis said.
McConnell echoed the former defense secretary’s concerns about the importance of U.S. allies in maintaining global stability.
“We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances,” McConnell said.
Trump painted the personnel change as a retirement, saying in a tweet, “General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years.”
“Tremendous progress” was made during Mattis’s tenure and a replacement “will be named shortly,” the president said.