Mattis tells top generals to talk to reporters more

Defense Secretary James Mattis reportedly told his top generals to talk to reporters more often to counter a perception that they shouldn’t be speaking to news outlets and to advocate ahead of a budget battle in Congress.

Defense One reported on Tuesday that Mattis recently told a closed-door gathering of top generals and admirals that they should “feel free, even obligated” to talk to the press.

“I realize there may be a perception that we have been keeping the media at arm’s length, but that is not the case and we’re doing our best to dispel that rumor and continue to be transparent with our press corps,” Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in an email to public affairs officers throughout the military obtained by Defense One. “Please communicate to your respective senior leaders that we want them to feel free, even obligated, to speak, in their lane, about their efforts and to use our OSD PA [Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs] team resources to help along the way.”

White later said to Defense One that Mattis delivered that message to ensure commanders communicate the dangers of stopgap spending measures. The government is operating on such a measure to start the fiscal year for the ninth year in a row and the Pentagon fears Congress will extend it beyond its current end date in December.

“The secretary’s top priority is ensuring the warfighter has what he or she needs to win any current or future conflict,” White told the news outlet. “Operating under a continuing resolution for the ninth consecutive fiscal year, the department has a responsibility to communicate with the American people about what our military needs to stay the most lethal joint force on earth. The media plays a critical role in that conversation.”

Relations between the Trump administration and news outlets have been fraught, with President Trump blasting the news media as “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people.”

Relations have been better at the Pentagon, although reporters have been frustrated by few on-camera briefings and being disinvited from Mattis’s trips, among other issues.

Mattis himself has expressed frustration with the press, complaining they are trying to frame his comments as contrary to Trump. 

“I’ll do my best to call it like I see it, but right now, if I say six and the president says half a dozen, they’re going to say I disagree with him,” Mattis told reporters in August at an off-camera press gaggle. “So let’s just get over that.”

His comments came after Mattis told reporters that “we’re never out of diplomatic solutions” with regard to North Korea in response to a question about Trump’s tweet that “talking is not the answer.”

Mattis also recently warned against leaks. In an internal memo dated Oct. 3 obtained and published by Military Times, Mattis said it is a violation of Pentagon personnel’s oath of office to leak nonpublic classified or unclassified information

“It is a violation of our oath to divulge, in any fashion, non-public DoD information, classified or unclassified, to anyone without the required security clearance as well as a specific need to know in the performance of their duties,” he wrote. “Divulging information in violation of the precepts places at risk our troops in harm’s way, our intelligence operations and our technological advantages over our foes.”