During an interview with CBS “Sunday Morning,” the former defense secretary said, “I will not speak ill of a sitting president. I’m not going to do it.”

“He’s an unusual president, our president is,” he added. “And I think that especially with just the rabid nature of politics today we gotta be careful. We could tear this country apart.”

Mattis — who resigned from his defense secretary position in December of 2018 — also made it clear that he wouldn’t be running in the 2020 presidential election, saying the race is “like a five-year jail sentence.”