Allegations are coming out alleging that Defense Secretary Gen. Mattis may have known about Chinese spy balloons that flew over the United States during Trump’s presidency – opted not to inform the President.
U.S. Gen Mattis was the Secretary of Defense under President Donald Trump from January 2017 to December 2018. However, he resigned from his position in December 2018 over differences with President Trump on a number of foreign policy issues, including the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. President Trump and General James Mattis disagreed on the U.S. policy in Syria, specifically regarding the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region. President Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria in December 2018, which was seen as a controversial move as it was done without consultation with U.S. allies or a clear plan for securing the region.
General Mattis, who was serving as the Secretary of Defense at the time, opposed the decision and believed that a premature withdrawal of U.S. troops would leave the region vulnerable to a resurgence of ISIS and other extremist groups.
As a response to this and Trump’s past behaviors, Gen. Mattis chose to not inform Trump about as many as 3 to 5 Chinese spy balloons that had flown through the continental U.S.
Mattis is alleged to have withheld the information as a result of his fears that Trump would ‘provocative’ and ‘aggressive.’ However, many are not looking at Gen. Mattis for having noble efforts – rather, many believe that Mattis may have committed treason by choosing to withhold information from the U.S. President.
While appearing on Fox Business, speaking to Stuart Varney, Rep. Waltz:
The Pentagon “thought Trump would be too provocative and too aggressive,”
“My office has been briefed by the office of the Secretary of Defense of the current Pentagon that it happened over Florida, it happened over Texas, and that it’s happened before,”
“We have more detailed questions but what is unclear, Stuart, at this point is, did the Pentagon under the Trump Administration brief the Trump White House and give them the option to take action or did they decide not to brief them for whatever reason?” Waltz asked.
“And there is some speculation, I talked to Trump administration officials over the weekend, that the Pentagon deliberately did it because they thought Trump would be too provocative and too aggressive,”
“So that’s what we need to get to the bottom of and one person that I’m waiting to hear from that we haven’t heard from that list is former Secretary of Defense, General Mattis who was the secretary during this time period,” Waltz said. “What did he know and what did he decide to pass on and brief to the president.”
