Conservative firebrand Pat Buchanan said former Secretary of Defense James Mattis was regurgitating "liberal mush" after he released a scathing rebuke of President Trump's tenure.
Buchanan made the comments in an editorial published to RealClearPolitics on Friday titled "Liberal Mush from the Mad Dog," in which the former three-time presidential candidate argued that Mattis was more concerned about his "place in history" than telling the truth about riots throughout the United States that have resulted in property damage and physical violence.
"Mattis, an obedient servant of President Trump for two years, has been persuaded that the wind is blowing the other way and his 'place in history' demands that he get himself on the correct side," Buchanan wrote. "The general has just defected to the resistance."
Mattis, who exited the Trump administration after a falling out with the president over troop strategy in the Middle East, was critical of Trump's response to the death of George Floyd and the resulting protests which have verged on riots over the last week. Mattis said the country is "witnessing the consequences of three years" of Trump and that some were being "distracted by a small number of lawbreakers."
Buchanan rejected these claims and defended Trump's call for state lawmakers to bring in National Guard troops to break what has now extended to over a week of sustained protests and destruction in major cities across the country.
"What happens when mobs run wild to where a governor of New York is denouncing the NYPD for failing to protect the city from anarchy and is threatening to replace the mayor for failing to put down the insurrection?" asked Buchanan.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham shared Buchanan's sentiments on Trump during an interview on Fox & Friends Thursday, during which he said there is a round-the-clock effort to "destroy his presidency."
