--- title: James Mattis Senate Hearing for Defense Secretary: Watch description: The senate confirmation hearing for Ret. Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis is scheduled to begin Thursday at 9:30 am. Watch live here canonical: https://time.com/4632747/james-mattis-defense-secretary-senate-hearing/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-12T14:26:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:41:36.310Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Live: Gen. James Mattis Faces Confirmation Hearing for Secretary of Defense og:description: President-elect Donald Trump nominated Mattis to be the Secretary of Defense og:url: https://time.com/4632747/james-mattis-defense-secretary-senate-hearing/ 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 Live: Gen. James Mattis Faces Confirmation Hearing for Secretary of Defense twitter:description: President-elect Donald Trump nominated Mattis to be the Secretary of Defense twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Live: Gen. James Mattis Faces Confirmation Hearing to Be Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Jan 12, 2017 2:26 PM UTC  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Jan 12, 2017 2:26 PM UTC The Senate confirmation hearing for [Ret. Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis](http://time.com/4588472/donald-trump-james-mattis-defense-pentagon/), nominated by President-elect [Donald Trump ](http://time.com/4631688/donald-trump-news-conference-what-to-know/)as Secretary of Defense, is scheduled to begin Thursday morning. Congress would need to give Mattis a waiver exempting him from a federal law that states the [Secretary of Defense](http://time.com/4588216/donald-trump-james-mattis-defense-secretary/) must not have been on active duty in the previous seven years. Mattis retired in 2013 from his position as Commander of U.S. Central Command after 44 years of service. “We must embrace our international alliances and security partnerships. History is clear: nations with strong allies thrive and those without them wither,” Mattis is expected to say during his opening remarks, [according to speech excerpts](http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/12/politics/james-mattis-defense-confirmation/). During his military career in the Marine Corps, he led operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since then, he has openly disagreed with President Barack Obama’s strategy in the Middle East. Watch above to see the Senate confirmation hearing live starting at 9:30 a.m. ET. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4632747/james-mattis-defense-secretary-senate-hearing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4632747/james-mattis-defense-secretary-senate-hearing/"},"headline":"Watch Live: Gen. James Mattis Faces Confirmation Hearing to Be Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense","datePublished":"2017-01-12T14:26:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:41:36.310Z","description":"Mattis retired in 2013 from his position as Commander of U.S. Central Command after 44 years of service","url":"https://time.com/4632747/james-mattis-defense-secretary-senate-hearing/","keywords":["Congress","White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"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/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4632747/james-mattis-defense-secretary-senate-hearing/","name":"Watch Live: Gen. James Mattis Faces Confirmation Hearing to Be Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense"}}]}] ```