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Moulton: Mattis Would Make a 'Good Defense Secretary'

December 6, 2016

Rep. Seth Moulton (D., Mass.) said Tuesday on CNN that he believes retired Gen. James Mattis, who Donald Trump nominated to be his secretary of defense, would make a good Pentagon chief.

Host Wolf Blitzer asked Moulton if he is "OK with" Mattis serving as defense secretary.

After being corrected for mistakenly responding that Mattis would make a good general, Moulton said, "A good secretary of defense, sorry. One of the best thinkers we have."

Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general, was repeatedly floated as a possible selection for President-elect Trump's Cabinet. The president-elect announced last week that he would nominate Mattis to serve as his Pentagon chief.

Moulton is one of several Democrats who have voiced their support for Mattis as secretary of defense. Because of a decades-old law that requires former military personnel to have been out of the service for at least seven years before heading the Pentagon, Congress will need to pass a waiver to let Mattis take the Cabinet post. Democratic support will be necessary in the Senate, although not the House, to get the waiver passed.

Moulton also heaped praise on Mattis earlier in the interview while responding to a question regarding retired Gen. David Petraeus, whose name has been floated as a potential option for secretary of state. Blitzer asked how he felt about Petraeus possibly running the State Department.

"I think he would be a fantastic secretary of state," Moulton said. "You know, General Petraeus is celebrated for being a warrior scholar, for his Ph.D. from Princeton, for being the co-author, with General Mattis, of the counterinsurgency and a doctrine that helped turn the war in Iraq back during the surge [in] 2007-2008."

Moulton served under Mattis in the Marine Corps during deployments to Iraq.