Saying that character and moral values are more important than any individual policies, retired four-star Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal has endorsed Joe Biden for president.

“I am basing the majority of my decision on supporting Vice President Biden with the idea that he has a more stable type of leadership,” McChrystal told Spectrum Bay News 9 on Thursday. “He’s more humble. He’s more inclusive of people. He’s more respectful of people. And I think that the character and values are more important right now than the specifics of any single policy.”

McChrystal also believes that the U.S. is worse off internationally since Donald Trump was elected president in 2016.

“I think that we have weakened our alliances," he said. "We have stretched our credibility with some of the bombast that’s been in our policy. And so I actually think we’re in a significantly weaker position."

McChrystal has been critical of Trump in the past, telling ABC’s Martha Raddatz in 2018 that he didn’t think the president “tells the truth,” and agreed with her when she asked if he believed Trump was “immoral.”

That prompted the president to fire off a tweet blasting McChrystal, specifically calling him out for the incident which led to ouster as the U.S. Commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in 2018.

“’General’ McChrystal got fired like a dog by Obama. Last assignment a total bust. Known for big, dumb mouth. Hillary lover!,” Trump wrote.

President Barack Obama called on McChrystal to submit his resignation as commander of all international forces in Afghanistan in June 2010. That was immediately after the publication of a Rolling Stone piece that included disparaging comments made by McChrystal and his staff about the Obama administration and its counterterrorism policy.

McChrystal says it’s OK to have policy differences, which is why he says he can freely support Biden today. 

“If we are all of one mind, we’re probably all of the wrong mind,” he says.

The Biden campaign is working hard to get the support of voters who care about national security issues. In his first and only appearance in Tampa during this election cycle, the former vice-president hosted a roundtable discussion last month with local veterans at the Hillsborough Community College-Dale Mabry campus.

Last week, nearly 500 former military and national security officials signed their names to an “open letter to America,” in which they wrote that Joe Biden had the “character, principles, wisdom and leadership necessary to address a world on fire.”

That followed a letter that 235 former military leaders wrote in support of President Trump last month. 

In that missive, they criticized the Democratic Party, writing that they “have once again pledged to cut defense spending, undermining our military strength.”

But Biden told Stars and Stripes last month that he didn’t think that budget cuts “are inevitable,” possibly leaving himself some wiggle room on that issue if he were to become president.

Meanwhile, Spectrum Bay News 9 asked McChrystal if he had any opinion about the incident which took place in Washington D.C. on June 1, when federal authorities used chemical irritants to clear out a group of protesters as President Trump walked across Lafayette Square for a photo-op. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, later apologized for his participation in that event.

“I was uncomfortable when I saw the military being used in that regard,” McChrystal said, adding that he’s also uncomfortable when local police wear “military looking garb.”

“Because, to the person watching TV, they’re starting to think ‘the U.S. military is out policing the streets.' And depending upon your position, that can be very upsetting,” he said. “So I think that we need to step back and be very careful about the role of the military so there’s no hint of politicization.”