Former Trump White House chief of staff, retired General John Kelly, participated in a live interview with Anthony Scaramucci on Friday. Scaramucci served as the White House communications director briefly under President Donald Trump . During their discussion, Kelly admitted that he agreed with retired General James Mattis and his comments about the president’s recent decision to use active-duty U.S. military domestically. Trump’s push for using the military came amid unrest after George Floyd’s death while in the custody of four former Minneapolis police officers.
Scaramucci asked Kelly if he agreed with Mattis’s assessment of the president.
“I agree with him,” Kelly said. “There is a concern, I think an awful big concern, that the partisanship has gotten out of hand, the tribal thing has gotten out of hand. He’s quite a man, Jim Mattis, and for him to do that tells you where he is relative to the concern he has for our country.”
Scaramucci and Kelly planned the interview several weeks before Floyd’s death and the resulting protests and riots across the United States, but they began their discussion talking about the recent events. Kelly noted how most people in the military attempt to stay apolitical. He said it is unusual for military leaders — whose loyalty is to the U.S. Constitution and its people instead of to the president — to speak out the way Mattis and others have done.
Mattis made his opinion known on Wednesday after Trump’s administration had authorities push back peaceful protestors near the White House using pepper balls and other devices so that he could walk to St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square and take a photo with a Bible. Kelly said he would have advised against the walk if he had still be involved with the administration.
Kelly also lamented the current polarization of the country, saying that people no longer talk to each other about what is best for society as a whole. Instead, according to Kelly, they are partisan and yell at each other, which does more harm than good. He also lamented how tribal the interactions among the people serving in the U.S. government have become.
“I think we need to look harder at who we elect,” Kelly told Scaramucci. “I think we should look at people that are running for office and put them through the filter: What is their character like? What are their ethics?”
Ultimately, the former chief of staff said that somebody needs to lead the world, and in his assessment, the world overall is a better place when the U.S. takes the lead. He did note, however, that under Trump, the U.S. has become less of a world leader.
