From the Liveblog of
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Trump says Mattis ‘could be’ leaving as US defense secretary
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleWASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump says in an interview airing Sunday that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis “could be” leaving, referring to him as “sort of a Democrat.”
Mattis, seen as one of the steadiest but also more independent members of Trump’s cabinet, has served as a low-profile counterweight to the president in his often abrasive treatment of US allies.
In an interview to be aired Sunday on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Trump is asked whether he wants Mattis to leave.
“It could be that he is. I think he’s sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth,” Trump says, according to an excerpt released by CBS. “But General Mattis is a good guy. We get along very well. He may leave. I mean, at some point, everybody leaves.”
Trump says he had lunch with Mattis two days earlier and Mattis, a retired Marine four-star general, had not told him that he was leaving.
— AFP
“It’s wrong. It’s so false. It’s fake news.” —President Trump on reports that the White House is in chaos. The president's full 60 Minutes interview airs tonight. https://t.co/tFUrrwfPmr pic.twitter.com/2xRTBqYJnX
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 14, 2018
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