“It breaks my heart that he’s going to step aside. We counted on him to be there and to stop this president from his worst impulse," Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis‘ resignation. | Zach Gibson/Getty Images congress Senators begged Mattis to stay, Durbin says

Sen. Dick Durbin said he is heartbroken that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is leaving the Cabinet and worried for the next two years of the Trump administration.

“I was one of many senators who privately sat down with Gen. Mattis and said, ‘Please stay, stay as long as you possibly can,'” Durbin (D-Ill.) said on NBC’s Meet the Press.” “We desperately need your mature voice, your patriotism in the room when this president's making life-or-death decisions about national security. But it obviously reached a breaking point.”


Added the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate: “It breaks my heart that he’s going to step aside. We counted on him to be there and to stop this president from his worst impulse.”

Talking to host Chuck Todd, Durbin said “the power of the purse strings” was the best way for the Senate to hold President Donald Trump accountable when it comes to foreign policy — and managing ongoing wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“We need to reassert our authority and responsibility when it comes to that,” Durbin said, calling the president’s “snap judgment” on a Syria withdrawal dangerous.

“Every day I question whether or not we can endure another two years,” he said of his outlook for the duration of Trump’s term.

“I think we can; I think this Constitution is strong. The American people are strong. But I'm hoping that my Republican colleagues will step up and join us in a bipartisan effort to put this government back on track.”