Someone Just Tried To Murder SECDEF Mattis

Oh, HELL no.

Someone just tried to murder General (Retired) James Mattis, the sitting US Secretary of Defense.

According to multiple news sources, envelopes addressed to  Secretary Mattis and Admiral John Richardson, the Chief of Naval Operations, were identified as suspicious and then tested positive for the poison ricin.

Ricin is extremely potent as a poison, far more potent than the more-familiar cyanide, and death by ricin poisoning is a particularly painful way to die. Ricin has been used in numerous assassinations and terrorist attacks over the years. One man even tried to poison his ex-girlfriend’s new flame by sending the man a scratch-and-sniff birthday card spiked with ricin (that’s cold, bro).

Attempted ricin attacks are not uncommon in the U.S. Right now there is no indication who sent the ricin-laced letters, so I’m not going to speculate on the “who” or the “why.” I’m just glad the security process worked and Mad Dog is still with us.