Host guy snodgrass is the author of holding the line. The about your role at pentagon specifically under jim mattis. Guest i was the chief speechwriter for secretary mattis. Speechn charge of operations, writing memos and letters to world leaders. I was also his director of communications. That started to elevate that role to the communications and messaging coordination with the white house, state department and international organizations. Host did you know secretary mattis before you got the job . Guest i had met him once very , i had beenically interviewing for my first speechwriter job. For 20 years i was in f18 fighter pilot. Maybe a year to two years of a break. I was interviewing for my first speechwriter role. Here comes secretary mattis. Had a chance to meet him very briefly. Get the job . You host i was contacted. Forere stationed overseas two and a half years. When we moved back to the United States we had just taken a job in norfolk, virginia. I got a call saying my services were needed in d. C. Host what was the goal in writing the book . Sometimes when you look at it through a narrow lens, you went secretary mattis so you could write a book. You realize that the pathway forward for me in the navy was going to close. Take a role that would be incompatible with my family. The commandingbe officer of an entire carrier air wing or you can be the Commanding Officer of a Nuclear PoweredAircraft Carrier. We were asked to do the latter. Honored by that selection. Unable to accept. And thinkxit uniform about the lessons you were exposed to being able to see how those kinds of significant decisions are made and to be able to share with the american theic the context for importance they have domestically and abroad. Be a runnings to theme in the book. Secretary mattis said this. When it comes to his management of the pentagon versus the white house saying there can be no daylight between us. People are getting tired of hearing one thing out of this administration. Does that reflect the attitude of general mattis during his time in the pentagon . Guest 100 . He understood that he served at the pleasure of the president. He saw uncoordinated messages. Say onee house might thing, the state department, the department of defense. Thats one of the reasons to write the book was even just recently with the news that broke over the weekend about secretary esper having a breakdown with secretary spencer and firing him. At all happened because there was a misalignment in the messaging. Host give us an example of having to be in line with the white house. When we would go to the nato minister in brussels. You have 28 other nations need to make sure that you are sticking to the president s talking points. A very vivid example. He needed to be aligned because everyone is parsing what he says. If theres a sliver of daylight thats not a good thing. The second one that really stands out to me is when you start thinking about the issues that did catch us by surprise. Thats the danger is if you find yourself in a circumstance where you are inadvertently not aligned. That could be blown out of proportion in a way that was not intended. Snodgrass will be with us until 10 00. Democrats. 000 202 7488001 republicans. 202 7488002 independents. If you are003 retired military. Did secretary mattis agree with President Trump over issues in running the pentagon . Will let him answer for himself. Thrilled. Be very secretary mattis understood the importance of being aligned with the president of the United States. He needs to be backing the president s play. That worked well where you had a multimonth president would say this is my position. You had plenty of lead in time to be able to coordinate that across the agency and enact that decision. You see the breakdown where a decision is made in haste. Banlk about the transgender tweet that caught everyone by surprise. That can cause a lot more issues and concern. T the president shortly certainly had thoughts about organizing on efforts. Did that go against secretary mattis and what he had to do at the pentagon . Guest i dont think it did. The number one thing he had to say is increase burden sharing. Tot may donations need increase their gross to mystic product to so they can take their own side in a fight. Thats the message that every single time we went to brussels that secretary mattis would amplify. From peter in rhode island. Youre on with amanda guy snodgrass. Go ahead. Commander guy snodgrass. Go ahead. Jr. Officer in vietnam in the marine corps. Is the United States always have to be involved somewhere, somehow in these wars . Particularly in the middle east where they never end . I will give you the example of iraq. Saddam hussein was an sop. There is no doubt about it. He stabilized the region there. Now that hes gone, iraq is a complete powder keg and we created that vacuum. Guest thanks for your question. You have to break it down into different zones. Thats a vigorous debate right now within military circles. This concept of forever wars. The United States might become embroiled in conflicts in the middle east and find it incredibly difficult to pull out because our absence in the region might cause increased instability. Thats one part of the equation. The other part is just the incredible return that america around military forces the world and overseas. It is something we have long enjoyed in the indo pacific. I myself served two tours of duty in japan and on board an Aircraft Carrier that patrolled the indo pacific. Return ist in magnified and amplified for our own security here. Domestically it helps prevent terrorism. Security and stability around the world. Host we will hear from valerie. Guest im so glad you are on this morning. I saw you on cnn this morning. You to speak to the fact that he pardoned i saw the documentary stephen seidenberg did. Its very fair. Im not talking about whether hes guilty or not. The fact that he pardoned him. He was guilty of murder. I would also like to mention something about the eu. Around. Not law the europeans do not trust us anymore and they have said this in the eu. Thanks. Have a good day. Love cspan. Host im going to dial in on the concern about trust of america. That is something that has been amplified over the last two to three years. We wereback to what talking about at the top of the hour. We become very accustomed here in the United States, its a very vigorous political debate going on right now. When you put yourself in the perspective of a nato ally or someone from south korea or japan this is not the way that their domestic politics normally play out so it appears to be more alarming to them. Certainly from my tours of duty in japan and my time in the middle east and europe that is a concern. Its not just can we trust america to be there for us. It also becomes a question of what does this mean for other nations in the region. America has long been the defender for democracy around the world. We have been there for our allies and partners and now it has the appearance that america is walking away from that and with that really means is that other nations like china and russia are seeking to take advantage of that perceived american weakness. Host you right this is a book about allies. Receptive they seemed to the reassuring message. Trump might be sowing uncertainty due to rapid changes in policy and spur of the moment but those were largely to appeal to his base. Matus and tillerson are working in concert to keep this thing on track. Expand on that. Could use the esperanza spencer from over the weekend. Strong statements about Eddie Gallagher and others who have been accused of crimes to pardon them or to intercede directly to reelevate Eddie Gallagher to the rank of chief petty officer and ensuring he can keep his trident pin during retirement. Thats a microcosm of what i expressed in the book. Communicating to voters and americans who support him. That gets conflated sometimes. Its very difficult to tell and thats where that prior coordination becomes incredibly important. If the state department receives a heads up that this is largely for political consumption thats one thing. If it was to be acted on that needs to be corneille did as well. Host how frustrated did secretary mattis get . Guest one of the things i love the most about working for him is that he is a consummate professional. He is someone who does not believe the saying i have always used is the emotion is enemy of good judgment. Kate came out it was, lets do the best we possibly can. From sylvester in baltimore, maryland. Democrat line. Caller thank you for taking my call. I just heard basically monitoring the impeachment hearing and i hear a lot of people saying that obama did not give lethal weapons to ukraine. Point out something to the effect that the ukrainian for suchnot prepared advanced weapons. Could you elaborate on what you found out . Now i have a clear understanding of why obama did not send those lethal weapons. Guest during the time when president obama was considering whether or not to provide defensive lethal aid, i was in japan. During my time with secretary mattis in the fall of 2017 we traveled to kiev. That was something that was brought up continually by. Mbassador volker ukraine is on the front lines in a hot war with russia. There is the region where the active ongoing conflict exists. Theyve had 14,000 ukrainians killed in the years they have been fighting against the russians. When you think about the importance of that defensive lethal aid that was something that certainly President Trump did feel incredibly was important to get to the ukrainians and that is something that did occur under secretary mattis. Host jeff from indiana. Independent line. Caller you have touched on a couple points i want to bring up. My son is a seal and i am from a part of indiana where Eddie Gallagher is from and it is covered somewhat on the local news. I dont think he was ever a very wellliked person on the teams. Pardon reallyial has not that much to do with eddie. It is just a sort of convenient prop for the president because immediately im seeing reporting that the president expects to see him out on the campaign at the convention so basically its what the president is getting out of this because actually hes hurting the special Operations Community by going in and making these willynilly decisions just for his purpose and im sorry to see this thing come down this way. I wish Eddie Gallagher could just fade off into the sunset but i think trump being who he is will not let that happen and thats my comment. Its basically all for the president as usual. Thank you. Guest one thing that i would noteworthyote, it is to those men and women who wear the cloth of our nation that you have an active duty member of the Naval Services who appealed directly to the president of the United States for clemency. Noteworthy itself is. You are circumventing the military code of justice. Professional organization, for the military its all about discipline and that is something that the military normally can self regulate and take care of itself internally and hold itself to a very high standard. Anytime you have a Senior Leader who selectively picks cases you start raising the issue of if you can catch a Senior Leaders maybe you have a different outcome. So thats the concern moving forward. Impressionsere your of the firing of Richard Spencer . Sure what still not went on behind closed doors. Spencer whoretary has said in his letter that it appears more like he resigned out of principal so i think its going to be a while before we know exactly what happens. The danger of operating in an ad hoc environment where you are in serving americas interest abroad and you dont make sure decisions have been vetted wrote the system these kind of breakdowns occur. Host how would you characterize the president s level of interest when it comes to describing him and telling them about issues important to defense . Guest i recount the meetings he had with President Trump when he came over to the pentagon. The first was on july 20 of 2017 and it was to walk him through the importance of our global array of forces. Anretary tillerson uses opportunity to talk about the disposition of the embassies in conflicts around the world and there was not much interest. He was more into the Bumper Sticker approach and i think both matus and gary cohen wanted to give him the in depth and he was not too keen to hear it. Men you write that both matus and tillerson were respondent. Remainder of the meeting President Trump veered from topic to topic like a squirrel caught in traffic. Guest i bring out the most important Lesson Learned especially for someone like myself who was in charge of the message and that is the next time President Trump came over it was all pictures, no words. Show him photos. Engages interest. Capture his excitement about the topic at hand. Dont try to give him a lecture. We learned the president didnt respond well to people who were going to lecture him. Host did that frustrate the secretary . Guest when you are an expert in your field and a Senior Leader does not have the depth of knowledge you would like to believe they are going to give credence to what youre saying and they are going to show an interest in getting into the nuts and bolts. Host the book is called holding the line by commander guy snodgrass. , retirednsalem military. Caller hello. I served in japan. In the navy. I loved it there. I used to be a democrat but i because of howan i believe the democrats just use. I am a black american in the way and they do nothing for that community and President Trump has in my opinion been good for the community. Was i was calling about what do you think about how some arele in the military now testifying and they seem like they have opinions. But when i was in the military, we were supposed to be neutral in our thoughts. We had no opinion. We just served the commanderinchief. And there was a chain of command. I just looked at it as betrayal for anyone to set up and testify against the commanderinchief when we should be neutral and we should respect the chain of command. Guest thats actually how i both start the book and close out the book is the importance of the men and women who serve in the military to retain that a political identity. Factyou think about the that the United States military has long been one of the most trusted institutions in america for decades and i believe a large part of that is it is widely seen as being apolitical. Sure theto make elected leaders or the appointed leaders running the military have the best information to make the best decisions. Thats where youre starting to see some of this breakdown. Fbi, the cia and other apolitical institutions have had their loyalty called into question and now youre seeing the military whether it is sending troops to the border where the military is being increasingly drawn into this highly politicized environment. Thats dangerous because you want the military to be widely praised for its apolitical role to stay above the fry. Host how often did secretary mattis and the president meet . Guest it varied over time. Secretary mattis would go over numerous times for a week in the beginning of the administration. He would be routinely called upon to give his advice. That started to taper off as the president became more confident in his own abilities and understanding of the military. Mattis had a lot of issues at play especially at the beginning of the administration you had the creation of the space force. A lot of these issues that required his attention. Its very easy to lose sight of especially in domestic allah takes. When you have one of these jobs you have not only a national but an International Portfolio and you dont catch a break just because its a saturday or sunday. Host thomas in texas. Republican line. Caller you think the kurds still respect us . I digress. We have 40,000 people dying a year on the streets of america with guns that are made for war. Do you think they should have it . Did you guys do anything about the contractors stealing billions of our taxpayer dollars . Thank you. Of the ones you brought up was afghanistan and this issue of contractors. I know the u. S. Government is always looking at ways to ensure that the companies that do business with us and operate overseas are doing so in a legal and ethical fashion. One of the biggest concerns we had with providing forces to afghanistan as we also provide monetary forces to afghanistan and you had the issue of ghost soldiers where the armed forces in afghanistan had created basically fake people so they could bring in more money to assist their government. That is something we certainly cracked down on. Whether its the pay or benefits we areo our own forces always making sure that done as ethically as possible. Host diana in gaithersburg. Just wanted to say thank you to cspan for having intelligent human beings who actually use their brains and who see something and say. Omething it sounds like the gentleman who wrote this book saw something and said something. Its the people in germany had done the same thing hitlers might not have ever taken over. Im not saying that trump is hitlers or has that kind of violent tendency, but he is really a scary human being. Hes taking where our country but everything he , its like he brought his reality show to the United States of America House of the people and i thank god for andle who are standing up questioning what he does, what he says. He does not say anything he says is not offthecuff. I have known people like him. And i think we need to be aware and not give him any purchase. Question everything that man says and thank you for writing your book. I hope more people will stand up to him. For raising you those points. Thats one of the best parts of living in a democracy as you can have positions that dont necessarily go in direct alignment. In chances for me to come and speak about these issues is incredibly import