TODAYS TOP HEADLINES
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Friday, December 21,2018 3A
Mattis resigns as Pentagon chief
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis speaks during the 2018 POW/
MIA National Recognition Day Ceremony at the Pentagon in
Washington, Sept. 21.
BY ZEKE MILLER
AND LOLITA BALDOR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON —
Defense Secretary Jim
Mattis abruptly said he was
resigning Thursday after two
years of disagreements with
President Donald Trump
over America’s role in the
world — the announcement
coming one day after Trump
overruled his advice against
pulling troops out of Syria
and pressed forward on dis
cussions to withdraw forces
from Afghanistan.
Mattis, perhaps the most
respected foreign policy
official in Trump’s admin
istration, will leave by the
end of February after two
tumultuous years struggling
to soften and moderate the
president’s hardline and
sometimes sharply changing
policies. He told Trump in
a letter that he was leaving
because “you have a right to
have a Secretary of Defense
whose views are better
aligned with yours.”
Trump said in a tweet that
Mattis was retiring, but that’s
not what Mattis said.
His departure was imme
diately lamented by foreign
policy hands and lawmak
ers on both sides of the aisle,
who viewed the retired
Marine general as a sober
voice of experience in the
ear of a president who had
never held political office or
served in the military. Even
Trump allies expressed
fear over Mattis’ decision to
quit, believing him to be an
important moderating force
on the president.
“Just read Gen. Mattis
resignation letter,” tweeted
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
“It makes it abundantly
clear that we are headed
toward a series of grave pol
icy errors which will endan
ger our nation, damage our
alliances & empower our
adversaries.”
The announcement came
a day after Trump surprised
U.S. allies and members of
Congress by announcing the
withdrawal of all U.S. troops
from Syria, and as he con
tinues to consider shrinking
the American deployment
in Afghanistan. It coincided
with domestic turmoil as
well, Trump’s fight with Con
gress over a border wall and
a looming partial govern
ment shutdown.
Trump’s decision to pull
troops out of Syria has been
SUSAN WALSH I Associated Press
sharply criticized for aban
doning America’s Kurdish
allies, who may well face a
Turkish assault once U.S.
troops leave, and had been
staunchly opposed by the
Pentagon.
Mattis, in his resigna
tion letter, emphasized the
importance of standing up
for U.S. allies — an implicit
criticism of the presi
dent’s decision on this issue
and others.
“While the U.S. remains
the indispensable nation in
the free world, we cannot
protect our interests or serve
that role effectively without
maintaining strong alliances
and showing respect to those
allies,” Mattis wrote.
Last year, Republican Sen.
Bob Corker — a frequent
Trump critic — said Mattis,
along with White House chief
of staff John Kelly and then-
Secretary of State Rex Tiller-
son, were helping “separate
our country from chaos. ”
Tillerson was fired early
this year. Kelly is to leave
the White House in the com
ing days.
“This is scary,” reacted
Senate Intelligence commit
tee Vice Chairman Mark
Warner, D-Va., on Twitter.
“Secretary Mattis has been
an island of stability amidst
the chaos of the Trump
administration.”
Mattis’ departure has long
been rumored, but officials
close to him have insisted
that the battle-hardened
retired Marine would hang
on, determined to bring
military calm and reason to
the administration’s often
chaotic national security
decisions and soften some of
Trump’s sharper tones with
allies.
Opponents of Mattis, how
ever, have seen him as an
unwanted check on Trump.
Mattis traveled to the
White House Thursday
afternoon to inform Trump
of his decision to leave the
administration. Trump said
a replacement would be cho
sen soon.
“The president’s national
security team’s job is to give
him advice and it’s the presi
dent’s job to make a deci
sion,” said press secretary
Sarah Sanders.
At the start of the Trump
administration, the president
had gushed about his respect
for Mattis, repeatedly calling
him “Mad Dog,” despite Mat
tis’ own public insistence that
the moniker was never his.
Shutdown looms over Trump’s wall demand
BY LISA MASCARO, MATTHEW
DALY AND CATHERINE LUCEY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President
Donald Trump’s demand for bor
der wall funds hurled the federal
government closer to a shutdown
as House Republicans approved a
package Thursday with his $5.7 bil
lion request that is almost certain
to be rejected by the Senate.
The White House said Trump
will not travel to Florida on Fri
day for the Christmas holiday if
the government is shutting down.
More than 800,000 federal workers
will be facing furloughs or forced
to work without pay if a resolu
tion is not reached before funding
expires at midnight Friday.
The shutdown crisis could be
one of the final acts of the House
GOP majority before relinquishing
control to Democrats in January.
Congress had been on track to fund
the government but lurched Thurs
day when Trump, after a rare lash
ing from conservative supporters,
declared he would not sign a bill
without the funding. Conservatives
want to keep fighting. They warn
that “caving” on Trump’s repeated
wall promises could hurt his 2020
re-election chances, and other
Republicans’ as well.
The House voted largely along
party lines, 217-185, after GOP
leaders framed the vote as a slap
back to Nancy Pelosi, who is poised
to become House speaker on Jan. 3
and who had warned Trump in a
televised Oval Office meeting last
week that he wouldn’t have the
votes for the wall.
“Now we find compromise,”
House Majority Leader Kevin
McCarthy, R-Calif., said. “We have
time right now to get it done. ”
The government funding pack
age, which includes nearly $8
billion in disaster aid for coastal
hurricanes and California wild
fires, now goes to the Senate,
where its prospects are grim amid
strong opposition from Democrats.
Sixty votes are needed to approve
the bill there.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Ky., warned sena
tors they may need to
return to Washington for a
noontime vote Friday.
Many senators already
left town for the holidays.
The Senate approved a
bipartisan bill late Wednes
day to keep the govern
ment temporarily funded,
with border security
money at current levels,
$1.3 billion, and no money for the
wall. The House had been expected
to vote on it Thursday.
The most likely possibility Fri
day is that the Senate strips the
border wall out of the bill but keeps
the disaster funds and sends it back
to the House. House lawmakers
said they were being told to stay in
town for more possible votes.
With Pelosi’s backing, the Sen
ate-passed bill likely has enough
support for House approval with
votes mostly from Democratic law
makers, who are still the minority,
and some Republicans.
Others were not so sure. “I
don’t see how we avoid a shut
down,” said retiring Rep. Dennis
Ross, R-Fla.
Rep. Mark Meadows,
R-N.C., the chairman of
the conservative Free
dom Caucus, said he was
not convinced after a
White House meeting with
GOP leaders that Trump
would sign the Senate bill.
“I looked him in the
eyes today, and he was
serious about not folding without a
fight,” Meadows said.
Trump’s sudden rejection of
the Senate-approved legislation,
after days of mixed messages, sent
Republican leaders scrambling for
options on Capitol Hill days before
Christmas.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, exit
ing the hastily called meeting
with Trump at the White House,
said, “We’re going to go back and
work on adding border security to
this, also keeping the government
open, because we do want to see an
agreement.”
By afternoon, Trump shifted his
terminology, saying he’s not nec
essarily demanding a border wall
but “steel slats” — which is simi
lar to the border security fencing
already provided for in the bill.
“We don’t use the word ‘wall’
necessarily, but it has to be some
thing special to do the job,” Trump
said at a farm bill signing at the
White House. The nuance could
provide Trump a way to try to pro
claim victory. The bill would keep
funding at current levels for bor
der security, including pedestrian
fencing and replacement fences,
but not the wall. It requires previ
ously used designs.
Democratic leaders have made
clear they will not budge on their
opposition to the border wall that
Trump campaigned on saying
Mexico would pay for it. Mexico
has refused
“The Trump temper tantrum
will shut down the government,
but it will not get him his wall,”
said Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer. Democrats favor
border security, Schumer said, but
he denounced the wall as “ineffec
tive, unnecessary and exorbitantly
expensive.”
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