{"id":82347,"date":"2018-10-16T09:28:23","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T13:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=82347"},"modified":"2022-01-13T20:33:06","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T01:33:06","slug":"mr-secretary-are-you-a-democrat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=82347","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Mr. Secretary, are you a Democrat?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Mattis responds to Trump’s comment that the Defense Secretary is ‘sort of a Democrat.<\/p>\n

\n

For the first time since he was appointed by President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was asked by reporters directly: \u201cAre you a Democrat?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It\u2019s not a question that crossed the minds of most reporters during Mattis\u2019 early tenure. The former top Middle East general could be bellicose in the field; Trump had clear affection for that \u201cMad Dog\u201d image in his rallies; Trump said Mattis was \u201ca true generals\u2019 general.\u201d However Mattis had never identified himself as a Republican, nor as a Democrat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But in the past few weeks, the former four-star commander who saw his tenure as the head of U.S. Central Command cut short during Democrat President Barack Obama\u2019s presidency over disagreements on his Iran policy was now facing regular questions over whether his time in Trump\u2019s Republican cabinet would be similarly short-lived, particularly after Trump told \u201c60 Minutes\u201d on Sunday he thought his defense secretary may be \u201csort of a Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Mattis:\u00a0<\/b>\u201cYou know, we\u2019re all built on our formative experiences. When I was 18, I joined the Marine Corps, and in the U.S. military we are proudly apolitical. By that, I mean that in our duties, we were brought up to obey the elected commander in chief, whoever that is. And we\u2019ve seen, over those \u2014 since I was in the military longer than some of you have been alive, I have seen Republicans and Democrats come and go. Where am I today? I\u2019m a member of the president\u2019s administration. And you have seen that President Trump\u2019s military policies, security policies, reaping significant bipartisan support. So my role, when you see 83 percent \u2014 think about this \u2014 for ? and I realize you all write about tension between this person and that, this administration and that party, and this sort of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Mattis continued:\u00a0<\/b>\u201cBut when you think 83 percent of the U.S. Congress voting the same way on an issue put forward by the Republican president, you can see that my portfolio is bipartisan by its very basis, and that is the protection of the United States. That\u2019s what President Trump has told me to do, and I eagerly carry that out, alongside probably the most selfless young men and women \u2014 not all young; some old men and women, too \u2014 civilian and military, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines working together. So that\u2019s where I stand. That defines me.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Q:<\/b>\u00a0I don\u2019t want to put too fine a point on it, but you haven\u2019t registered Republican or Democrat. Is that what I\u2019m hearing you say?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Mattis:<\/b>\u00a0I\u2019ve never registered for any political party.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He is neither Democrat or Republican…what will they do now?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: \u2018Mr. Secretary, are you a Democrat?\u2019<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mattis responds to Trump’s comment that the Defense Secretary is ‘sort of a Democrat. For the … \u2018Mr. Secretary, are you a Democrat?\u2019<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":667,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/667"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}