The journalists at CBS This Morning on Monday ignored the harsh words former Defense Secretary James Mattis has for Barack Obama and for Joe Biden in his new book. Instead, the hosts used their Labor Day interview to try and get Mattis to criticize Donald Trump.

Despite knowing that Mattis won’t talk about a sitting president, Anthony Mason quizzed, “What do you think the President got wrong about Syria?” Guest host Maria Elena Salinas demanded, “Your resignation letter is in that book and it’s been made public. Was it your decision to leave or were you fired or were you pushed into resigning or pressured into resigning?”

Host Tony Dokoupil wryly tried from another angle, wondering of Mattis’s new book: “This is a book about leadership and a good book at that. What would you say is your favorite leadership quality of the sitting president?”

What’s missing from all of the questions coming from CBS This Morning? Any mention of Obama or Biden. As NPR explained, Mattis hammers them in his new book:

Mattis also recounts a meeting in Iraq with then-Vice President Joe Biden in the run-up to the U.S. withdrawal. "He wanted our forces out of Iraq," Mattis writes. "Whatever path led there fastest, he favored. He exuded the confidence of a man whose mind was made up, perhaps even indifferent to considering the consequences were he judging the situation incorrectly."

He called some of Obama’s choices “catastrophic.” Mattis also critiqued Obama’s handling of Afghanistan:

President Obama said in 2011 that he would draw down troops in Afghanistan (in addition to the complete withdrawal in Iraq). "I had been assigned two contradictory objectives," Mattis writes.

On CBS Sunday Morning, Pentagon reporter David Martin scored another interview with Mattis. Instead of asking the general about his objections to Obama policy while serving as the Commander of the United States Central Command, Martin put the blame on Mattis:

Before James Mattis parted ways with President Trump, he was ousted by President Obama. How did it end for you with the Obama administration?... You were relieved of command.... So the President essentially had lost confidence in you?

There was no mention in the interview of Mattis’s thoughts on 2020 Democrat Biden.

A transcript of the CBS This Morning questions is below. Click "expand" to read more.