Trump Claims He 'Essentially Fired' Mattis.
BERMAN: Former defense secretary James Mattis quit. He resigned. He resigned from the cabinet. Resigned as defense secretary over the president's policy in Syria. He resigned. However, the president now claims otherwise. Watch.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What's he done for me? How has he done in Afghanistan? Not too good. Not too good. I'm not happy with what he's done in Afghanistan, and I shouldn't be happy. But he was very happy. He was very thankful when I got him $700 billion. And then the following year, $716 billion. So I mean, I wish him well. I hope he does well. But as you know, President Obama fired him and essentially, so did I. I want results.</s>BERMAN: Again, essentially, he did not. Essentially, James Mattis resigned. Joining us now to discuss, retired Major General James "Spider" Marks and retired Rear Admiral John Kirby. He was the Pentagon and State Department spokesperson. Spider, I want to start with you. James Mattis quit. The president is trying to re-write history before our very eyes.</s>MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Secretary Mattis determined that he was not being successful with the president. His voice was not being heard. And every obligation that -- that we have is subordinance, and we're part of this large hierarchy called the Defense Department. And to make that determination, if it's not working, it's not working. So it was his obligation to make the determination that it was his time, and he did. There's a military term for that. And it's called stealing a march. Jim Mattis took the initiative. He stole the march on the president and said, "Boss, this isn't working. I offer my resignation."</s>BERMAN: Trying to re-write history, or lie, as we're all watching about how James Mattis left, is one thing. Admiral Kirby, it's another thing to run him down, which is what the president did there in front of his largely acting cabinet in front of the American people. What's the impact there?</s>REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY (RET.), CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: Yes, it was -- that was very disappointing to see. Very ungentlemanly, in my view. I think all of this, this entire episode and, you know, the former admirals and generals that will come out and speaking -- speaking out against the president, all of this, I think, is doing nothing to improve and make for healthy civil military relations. The president, by the way he runs down formers or even acting generals and admirals who disagree with him or who seem to express policy differences. He makes it very hard, I think, for the military and the civil -- civilian control of the military to go on in a healthy way. And I'm really worried about the precedency setting for future presidents and future commander-in-chiefs, who might come to think that this is OK.</s>BERMAN: And it's really interesting, because a lot has been written about that, really, over the last 24 hours. What precedent does this set? What does it mean for the civilian military relationship in general? What does it mean for senior officers going forward who are active duty? Might they be less inclined to criticize the president? Or might they be more inclined to be obsequious when they are still in service so as not to incur his wrath before or after. Likewise, you know, is there a bad effect to having formers so openly critical of a current administration?</s>MARKS: The last thing, John, we need in senior leadership in the military is anyone of those individuals being obsequious to the chain of command, to the commander in chief and everybody that is -- is below the president of the United States. You have to be able to speak your voice. You have to be able to push back. You provide counsel to your leadership. You know, the chairman of the joint chiefs works directly for the president, the National Security Council, Homeland Security, and the Sec Def. That's the single voice that can go directly to the president. That individual, General Dunford, is now in a -- not a precarious situation at all. He knows what the odds are. He knows what the challenges are. What he doesn't have around him is the support staff, the support team -- I'm sorry, that was in place before with Secretary Mattis and with chief of staff John Kelly, because those three folks were very, very close over an arc of their life, a career together. So the chairman now has to be able to step up. The point that John is making, in terms of the civility between the relationships that exist, between the military and civilian control, is absolutely crucial. Military folks understand that.</s>BERMAN: So not only is the president rewriting recent history, but also going several decades with some astounding comments, historians will tell you, about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Listen to this.</s>TRUMP: The reason Russia was in -- in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there.</s>BERMAN: Right, there's two parts to that. One, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Admiral, to prop up a communist government there. That's one thing. That's just getting history wrong. The second part of it, though, is the one that's astounding, when a president of the United States says that the former Soviet Union has right to be in Afghanistan.</s>KIRBY: Yes.</s>BERMAN: What would Ronald Reagan say about that?</s>KIRBY: I mean, yes, I mean, I was going to say, a Republican president at that, John. I mean, yes, Ronald Reagan was very vocal at the time, as you might recall, about how this violated not only international norms but international law, and of course, the United States worked, covertly and overtly, to resist and to hamper Russia's invasion of Afghanistan over many, many years. Look, just -- just read the book "Charlie Wilson's War," and it lays it all pretty well out there. This does show -- I think we got a glimpse yesterday, John, of how difficult it is for some of the president's national security advisers to really advise him on policy when it doesn't appear like he has the intellectual curiosity to really understand the context, the historical context with which these struggles are ongoing. I mean, we are in Afghanistan to prevent it from becoming a safe haven for another attack like 9/11, pure and simple. And the missions that our troops are doing there are twofold: counterterrorism, and advise and training Afghan national security forces. And it doesn't appear as if the president fully understands the strategy that he, himself, signed. This is the other problem I had yesterday, was blaming Secretary Mattis for what he didn't think was results in Afghanistan. It is the president's strategy that Secretary Mattis was executing, and I don't think the president fully grasps his own responsibility here as commander in chief.</s>BERMAN: And right. I'm not trying to be the history police here. I'm not trying to say, "Uh-oh, you got that answer wrong on the test --</s>KIRBY: Right.</s>BERMAN: "-- about the Soviet Union in Afghanistan." But General, it does show how the president thinks about national security, or how seriously he thinks about national security, and, again, this happens in the wake of the defense secretary resigning.</s>MARKS: You know, the challenge, truly, is how serious -- to your point, John, how seriously does he take this? Because what we're seeing with this president, clearly -- and let's assume for a second there's a level of curiosity. Just give me that just for a sec in this president. But he's an incredibly impetuous individual who runs off of his instincts. And when you -- if you were to have the conflict between this -- a level of curiosity and instinctual decision making, that, the instinctual decision making, is going to override and really kind of suppress the -- what I would call a deliberate or a thoughtful decision-making process. That's what concerns me. That's what concerns me most greatly.</s>BERMAN: General, Admiral, it is an honor to get to speak to you both. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.</s>KIRBY: Thank you.</s>MARKS: Thank you, John.</s>BERMAN: Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: All right, John. Democrats take over the House today and are set to pass a new set of rules. One Republican says he is ready to support them. He's next.