Ex-Defense Secretary James Mattis’s office criticized a former top aide for the planned publication of a memoir that reportedly quotes Mattis as saying he would “rather swallow acid” than watch the military parade President Trump arranged for the Fourth of July, according to Politico.
Mattis’s assistant, Candace Currier, said Mattis “hasn’t read the book and doesn’t plan to.” The memoir, titled “Holding the Line: Inside Trump’s Pentagon With Secretary Mattis,” was written by retired Navy Cmdr. Guy Snodgrass, who served as Mattis’s communications director and head speechwriter.
{mosads}“Mr. Snodgrass was a junior staffer who took notes in some meetings but played no role in decision making. His choice to write a book reveals an absence of character,” Currier said in a statement, adding that “surreptitiously taking notes without authorization for a self-promoting personal project is a clear violation of that trust.”
The statement also said that Snodgrass “may receive a few brief moments of attention for this book. But those moments will be greatly outweighed by the fact that to get them, he surrendered his honor.”
Snodgrass previously sued the Defense Department in August, claiming the agency was deliberately delaying the book’s publication.
The book also reportedly singles out Mattis for praise, however, saying he “provided a valuable service to the nation, our international allies and partners, and the members of the department he led … just as important, Mattis effectively translated the president’s desires into ethical, well-executed outcomes.”