James Mattis Was Asked If He Was Leaving The Trump Administration, And His Answer Was Perfection

There’s no one as straightforward and no nonsense as Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Bret Baier interviewed him last week, and it was all kinds of awesome.

Sitting down with Defense Secretary Mattis at the #RNDF. Join us now on @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/nED5cj0HJK

— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) December 1, 2018

Secretary Mattis during his discussion with @BretBaier: “I’m not paid to be optimistic or pessimistic. I maintain a military that is second to none with the fervent hope that we won’t have to employ it, but I have no doubt about the outcome if we must.” pic.twitter.com/mUydtucGDf

— Kyle Morris (@RealKyleMorris) December 2, 2018

At one point, Baier asked Mattis if he had any plans to leave the administration, and Mattis’ response was BRUTALLY honest.

“Well, if I did, Bret, you wouldn’t be the one to know.”

*nervous laugh*

Mattis elaborated on that, and it was fantastic.

“But, ladies and gentlemen, let me explain something. When the president of the United States, Republican or Democrat, male or female, none of that matters — when the president of the United States — and I’ve never met Mr. Trump until I met him as president elect when he called me back for a job interview — when the president of the United States asked you to do something in America, you just do it, to quote Nike — just do it. Don’t get caught up in the Hamlet, wishing and wondering and ringing your hands or something like that, and say, to do or not to do, or whatever, just do it. Get up, go up, do your job to the best of your ability, uphold the Constitution, give the president your best military advice, in my case,” he said.

“But, you know, we’ve got to get back to the point where service in this country is something you do,” he continued. “I mean, to tell you the truth, the only reason I’m back in this low-paying outfit — (Laughter.) — is because I love the troops, because I learned to hate mine fields at age 21, but I love guys so valiant they would go through looking for something they didn’t want to find, because they didn’t want their buddy behind them to step on it, and the other reason is I’ve got a love affair of the U.S. Constitution. I’ll just leave it at that.”

What an amazing patriot!