By now hopefully you’ve seen a clip of the General Mattis bit from the Al Smith Dinner. You can watch 1:20 minutes of it here or here. Below is the entire speech which I encourage you to watch even though it is 16 minutes long. It is a lot more serious than merely several well crafted and delivered jokes.
If you don’t watch the entire 16 minute speech here are some of the serious parts:
But Mattis quickly moved on from the jokes and picked up a more serious tone, citing a speech that Abraham Lincoln gave in 1838 to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Ill.
In it, Lincoln "observed great nations crumble for one of two reasons," the first being foreign invasion, Mattis said, which the future president dismissed as "inconceivable."
The second, he said, paraphrasing Lincoln, "was corrosion from within – the rot, the viciousness, the lassitude, the ignorance."
"Anarchy is one potential consequence of all this. The other is the rise of an ambitious leader, unfettered by conscience, or precedent or decency, who would make himself supreme," he said.
Decrying the lack of bipartisanship, Mattis warned of a "national paralysis" that has "supplanted trust and empathy with suspicion and contempt."
"We have scorched our opponents with language that precludes compromise and we have brushed aside the possibility that the person with whom we disagree might actually sometimes be right," he said.
"We owe a debt to all who fought for liberty, including those who tonight serve in the far corners of our planet, among them the American men and women supporting our Kurdish allies," the retired general said.
In conclusion, Mattis again paraphrased Lincoln, this time that president's famous Second Inaugural speech, delivered in the closing days of the Civil War: "With malice for none and charity for all, let us restore trust in one another.” from NPR
Previous to this Mattis had been criticized for his relative silence about Donald Trump. In the Atlantic in late August he wrote: “You don’t endanger the country by attacking the elected commander in chief. I may not like a commander in chief one fricking bit, but our system puts the commander in chief there, and to further weaken him when we’re up against real threats — I mean, we could be at war on the Korean peninsula.”
The timing of this is perfect because it comes just after Trump responded to Mattis’ criticizing his phone call to Erdogan and the subsequent Turkish invasion. “You know why?” Trump told lawmakers Wednesday. “He wasn’t tough enough. I captured ISIS. Mattis said it would take two years. I captured them in one month.”
The jokes that are being repeated the most are:
- "I’m not just an overrated general. I’m the most overrated general. I'm honored to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress. So I guess I'm the Meryl Streep of generals, and frankly that sounds pretty good to me."
- “I earned my spurs on the battlefield. Donald Trump earned his spurs in a letter from a doctor.”
- “I think the only person in the military that Mr. Trump doesn’t think is overrated is Colonel Sanders.”
Unfortunately while this speech was peppered with jokes Mattis also made substantive comments which will be overlooked.
As a whole his speech is a strong condemnation of his former commander-in-chief and the way he governs. It is different than what the officer who coordinated the capture of Bin Laden wrote. Navy Adm. William H. McRaven wrote a widely covered New York Times OpEd on Thursday “Our Republic Is Under Attack From the President.”
McRaven concludes his OpEd as follows:
If our promises are meaningless, how will our allies ever trust us? If we can’t have faith in our nation’s principles, why would the men and women of this nation join the military? And if they don’t join, who will protect us? If we are not the champions of the good and the right, then who will follow us? And if no one follows us — where will the world end up?
President Trump seems to believe that these qualities are unimportant or show weakness. He is wrong. These are the virtues that have sustained this nation for the past 243 years. If we hope to continue to lead the world and inspire a new generation of young men and women to our cause, then we must embrace these values now more than ever.
And if this president doesn’t understand their importance, if this president doesn’t demonstrate the leadership that America needs, both domestically and abroad, then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office — Republican, Democrat or independent — the sooner, the better. The fate of our Republic depends upon it.
Watch McRaven explain why he wrote the OpEd.
McRaven is well known as the officer who coordinated the raid that capture Bin Laden. An essay in a major newspaper is obviously different than a speech presented at an event known for the jokes from its featured speakers. Remember this from 2016: At Al Smith Dinner, Donald Trump Turns Friendly Roast Into 3-Alarm Fire.
Mattis had been criticized for not coming out sooner and now a few academic types are saying that his first public remarks shouldn't have been couched in humor. Two of the people who criticized them are Thomas M. Nichols, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island and Susan Hennessey who is a Brookings Institution senior fellow and the executive editor of the Lawfare blog.
Nichols posted on Twitter“I don’t think anyone should be chuckling at Mattis’s brush off of Trump’s insult,” here, “It’s his facile way of dodging the reality that he knows a lot about what happened in this White House, including what are now obviously impeachable acts directly related to his time as SECDEF.” That majority of the comments to his tweet supported his position.
Hennessey wrote in a tweet Thursday: “After indefensible silence, this will surely undercut the gravity of any future words he might have on the subject.”
I agree with many of those who commented to Susan Hennessey’s tweet which you can read by clicking below. Unlike those who commented to the Nichols tweet most of them disagreed with her.
By far the majority of comments to this tweet disagreed with what Hennessey wrote. Here are some of those comments:
- Please, ma’am. We’re light years past “dignified”. Gen. Mattis served with distinction and
- @realDonaldTrump is a five-time draft dodger. I’d file his comments under “well placed warning shots”.
- "Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand"- Mark Twain. As a Fellow Veteran, I think Mattis has earned the right to make fun of President Bone Spurs, especially since Trump's actions have gotten so many of our Allies, the Kurds, killed for no other reason than money.
- .. but highly effective. Lighten up Francis
- In this particular case, I don’t agree. This president has browbeat the crap out of this country - those guys included — and he deserves the crude, biting comments he so freely gives out.
- NO ITS NOT!!!!IT WAS PERFECT!!!!!I WISH MORE PEOPLE WOULD MAKE CONSTANT AND CONTINUOUS JABS AT THE #TRAITORTRUMP
- I agree (with those approving of Mattis’ remarks). Mattis didn't say anything disrespectful or unbecoming of his position. He merely quipped about it. Wish more would follow suit. Romney takes hits because of his 2012 loss. If were him, I'd tell Trump better to have lost fair & square, than have Russian assistance.
- Sometimes ridiculing a person with NPD can be as effective as speaking to Congress.
- Susan, this is the venue he needed to expectorate his views; anything else would have been insubordination of his status.
- I (respectfully) disagree. I think he's smart enough to not go it alone, and it may be no coincidence that the McRaven op-ed is out the same day. He'd want a definitive objective, plan, and means to achieve the objective. He won't just start throwing grenades or soundbites.
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I think these are perfect. Not the knockout punch that people might want to see but clever body blows that are much more damaging and meant to bruise and punish Donald Trump’s insecure ego. @realDonaldTrump knows he could never walk an inch in Mattis’ boots. Mattis is superior.
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Or, it might be remembered (hopefully) as the consequential moment that one of the most informed and influential insiders in the whole dumpster fire of an administration finally broke his silence and started to share what he really knew of the insanity inside. Just sayin’.
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Trump is the least capable of any president in my memory of telling even a joke written for him by a professional comic writer. I think this is because to tell a joke well you have to understand the joke and why your audience will think it is funny. Trump is also the president most lacking in spontaneous expressions of humor unless you consider sadist remarks to be funny.
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I say kudos to General Mattis for using this venue to come out against Trump. It may not have been the perfect way to do so, but it garnered him lots of publicity and is sure together under Trump’s skin.
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He joins not only Admiral McRaven is going public with severe criticism of Trump but also the regular four stars who appear frequently on MSNBC (and hopefully elsewhere) Gen. Barry McCaffrey and Admiral Jim Stavridis. Here are segments with each of them.
Above: Gen. Barry McCaffrey with former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that MSNBC has another military officer as an analyst, Jack Jacobs, but he’s a “mere” full bird Colonel.