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By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies
WASHINGTON/ SAINT PAUL/ NEW YORK: Ex-US Defence Secretary James Mattis has denounced President Donald Trump, saying he deliberately stokes division.
He said he was “angry and appalled” by Trump’s handling of ongoing protests over the death of African American George Floyd at the hands of police.
Mattis berated Trump’s “abuse of authority” – and backed protesters seeking to uphold American values, as did ex-President Barack Obama.
Trump has described Mattis repeatedly as an “overrated general”.
Mattis quit in 2018 after Trump decided to pull US troops out of Syria.
In response to the fresh criticism, Trump posted a series of tweets in which he claimed to have fired Mattis.
“I didn’t like his “leadership” style or much else about him, and many others agree,” he wrote. “Glad he is gone!”
The row comes as new charges were brought against all of the sacked police officers present at Floyd’s death in the city of Minneapolis.
The charge against Derek Chauvin has been elevated to second-degree murder while the other three officers, previously uncharged, face counts of aiding and abetting murder.
The death has sparked huge protests across the US in recent days.
The vast majority of demonstrations over the past nine days have been peaceful, but some have turned violent and curfews have been imposed in a number of cities.
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try,” Mattis wrote in The Atlantic. “Instead, he tries to divide us.”
He continued: “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”
Mattis also addressed the recent wave of anti-racism protests.
“We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers,” Mattis wrote. “The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values… as a nation.”
The retired general – whose resignation letter in December 2018 was full of implied criticism of the president’s foreign policy – also condemned the use of the military in response to the protests.
“Never did I dream that troops… would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens,” he said.
“Militarising our response, as we witnessed in Washington DC, sets up a conflict… between the military and civilian society,” he added.
Mattis was referring to an incident earlier this week when peaceful protesters were dispersed with tear gas and rubber bullets from a park close to the White House.
Trump then crossed the park for a photo-op at a historic church that had been damaged by fire in the unrest.
This provoked sharp criticism from top Democrats and religious leaders, who accused the president of aggressively targeting the demonstrators for the purpose of posing for photographs.
In his latest comments, Mattis derided the “bizarre photo-op” and said clearing the park of demonstrators beforehand was an “abuse of executive authority”.
Trump has repeatedly questioned whether the protesters were peaceful and, in an earlier tweet, he said “people liked my walk to this historic place of worship”.
And in an interview with his former press secretary Sean Spicer on Wednesday, the president once again defended the church visit. He said it was “handled really well” and “religious leaders loved it”.
Former President Barack Obama said it was vital to channel the momentum built up in the recent protests to bring about change.
In his first video comments since Floyd’s death, he said the demonstrations were as profound as anything he’d seen in his lifetime, and called on Americans to seize the chance to deal with the underlying problems in society.
“Too often some of that violence has come from folks who were supposed to be serving and protecting you,” Obama said.
“I want you to know that you matter. I want you to know that your lives matter, your dreams matter.”
“There is a change in mindset that’s taking place, a greater recognition that we can do better,” he added.
Obama did not comment directly on Trump’s handling of the unrest, although he urged mayors around the country to review their use-of-force policies.
The Duchess of Sussex has also issued a personal message about Floyd’s death, saying his life mattered and recent events had been devastating.
Protests over the death continued in dozens of cities on Wednesday night despite widespread curfews.
They have been largely peaceful, with cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago relaxing their restrictions amid hopes that the worst of the violence had passed.
A post-mortem examination has revealed that Floyd had the coronavirus in early April but officials stressed that this played no role in his death.
Earlier, AP figures put the number of arrests to be over 10,000 nationwide in protests decrying racism and police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
All four Minneapolis police officers involved in Floyd’s death have been charged. Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck, has been charged with second-degree murder, up from third-degree murder. He also faces a second-degree manslaughter charge. The other three are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter.
US President Donald Trump was rebuked by his former defence secretary, James Mattis, who said he was trying to sow divisions. Trump’s current defence chief, Mark Esper, also said he opposed Trump’s threat to send in the military to quell unrest.
Several major cities scaled back or lifted curfews imposed for the past few days. As protests continue, police in riot gear charged into a crowd of about 1,000 protesters defying a local curfew in New York City’s Brooklyn borough, albeit peacefully, near an outdoor plaza, and clubbed demonstrators and journalists as they scurried for cover in heavy rain.
Meanwhile, a memorial service was to be held on Thursday for George Floyd led by civil rights activist Al Sharpton.
The ceremony will be held in Minneapolis, where Floyd died after being detained by police.
Sharpton, who will give the eulogy for Floyd, met with his family on Wednesday.
“Tomorrow we will lay out how we will mobilize nationally in the name of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and more,” the leading rights activist said on Twitter, referring to a black jogger who was shot dead in February and a black medical worker killed by police in her own apartment in March.
