--- title: President Obama Speech on National Security: Watch Live description: President Obama will defend his approach to counterterrorism over the past eight years during the speech in Tampa, Florida. Watch live here canonical: https://time.com/4592045/president-obama-national-security-speech-watch-live/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-06T17:21:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:29:18.460Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch President Obama's National Security Speech in Tampa og:description: He will defend his approach to counterterrorism og:url: https://time.com/4592045/president-obama-national-security-speech-watch-live/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch President Obama's National Security Speech in Tampa twitter:description: He will defend his approach to counterterrorism twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch President Obama's Last Major National Security Speech as Commander-in-Chief by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Dec 6, 2016 5:21 PM UTC by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Dec 6, 2016 5:21 PM UTC President Barack Obama is giving his [last major national security speech](http://time.com/4591361/president-obama-national-security-speech/) as Commander-in-Chief on Tuesday, in which he is expected to sum up his administration’s counterterrorism efforts over the past eight years. According to White House aides, the president’s speech was planned months before Donald Trump was elected. This will be Obama’s last major opportunity to promote the national security approach he hopes the President-elect—who chose retired three-star Army General [Michael Flynn](http://time.com/4576365/michael-t-flynn-donald-trump-national-security-adviser/) as his national security adviser—will follow. Obama will speak from the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, home of the U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command teams. Watch a live stream above at 4:10 p.m. ET. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4592045/president-obama-national-security-speech-watch-live/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4592045/president-obama-national-security-speech-watch-live/"},"headline":"Watch President Obama's Last Major National Security Speech as Commander-in-Chief","datePublished":"2016-12-06T17:21:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:29:18.460Z","description":"He will defend his approach to counterterrorism","url":"https://time.com/4592045/president-obama-national-security-speech-watch-live/","keywords":["National Security","Barack Obama","President Obama","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/national-security/","name":"National Security"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4592045/president-obama-national-security-speech-watch-live/","name":"Watch President Obama's Last Major National Security Speech as Commander-in-Chief"}}]}] ```