News of Defense Secretary James Mattis’s departure from the Trump administration was met with bipartisan shock and concern on Thursday.
Mattis announced he would resign at the end of February, writing in his resignation letter to President Trump that he deserved a secretary “whose views are better aligned with yours.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) tweeted that she has “a lot of respect for General Mattis and after what happened yesterday the resignation is sadly understandable,” referring to Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters: “I’m sad. I’m shaken by it. I had so much respect for him,” according to CNN’s Manu Raju.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, suggested the Trump administration would be destabilized by the Defense secretary’s departure.
“This is scary. Secretary Mattis has been an island of stability amidst the chaos of the Trump administration,” he wrote on Twitter. “As we’ve seen with the President’s haphazard approach to Syria, our national defense is too important to be subjected to the President’s erratic whims.”
Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) called the resignation a “dire omen.”
“James Mattis was the last adult left in the room,” he tweeted. “He was maybe the last person who could tell this President ‘No.’ His departure is a dire omen for the future of our alliances and the security of our country.”
Mattis, a former general, was confirmed for the top Pentagon post in a 98-1 vote in the Senate; the sole dissenter was Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called Thursday’s news “devastating.”
“Just imagine the morale crisis at the Department of Defense right now, having sustained the 1-2 punch of the Syria reversal and Mattis resignation,” he tweeted. “Devastating.”
High-profile Republicans also expressed concern over the resignation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the news filled him with “great sadness.”
“It is with great sadness that I was informed of the resignation of General Mattis,” he wrote. “He is one of the great military leaders in American history. He should be proud of the service he has rendered to President @realDonaldTrump and our nation.”
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said Mattis was important for curbing Trump’s isolationist tendencies.
“This is a sad day,” Sasse tweeted. “General Mattis was giving advice POTUS needs to hear. Mattis rightly believes that Russia & China are adversaries, and that we are at war with jihadists across the globe who plot to kill Americans. Isolationism is a weak strategy that will harm Americans…”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Mattis’s resignation letter made it clear that America is headed for a “series of grave policy errors which will endanger our nation, damage our alliances & empower our adversaries.”
“I hope we who have supported this administrations initiatives over the last two years can persuade the President to choose a different direction,” Rubio added. “But we must also fulfill our constitutional duty to conduct oversight over the policies of the executive branch.”