Gates meeting with Trump

By Tony Bertuca / December 2, 2016 at 11:31 AM

President-elect Donald Trump will be meeting today with former Defense Secretary Bob Gates, who once wrote that Trump was "beyond repair" on national security and "unfit to be commander in chief."

Gates has since walked back the comments he made in a Sept. 16 Wall Street Journal op-ed, telling CBS News on Wednesday that he hopes he was wrong about Trump.

"It's critical for us now that he is the president-elect, for him to be successful as president -- especially in national security," Gates said. "It's important for all us, so I think that anybody who can do anything to help should do it. And those who want to stand on the sidelines, I would urge them to reconsider."

Spokesman for Trump's transition committee said Gates would be meeting with the president-elect today at Trump Tower in New York.

Gates also told CBS that former Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis would make an excellence defense secretary. Trump announced Mattis as his choice on Thursday.

"And I would ordinarily have some concerns about civilian military relationships and civilian control and so on but not with Jim Mattis," Gates told CBS. "Jim has a deep sense of history; he's got a great strategic mind and folks in uniform love him. I think he would be a great choice."

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