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The first Senate Democrat has come out against one of President-elect Donald Trump's more popular cabinet nominees, as Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York says she won't back a special waiver for the general. 'While I deeply respect General Mattis's service, I will oppose a waiver,' Gillibrand said in a statement. 'Civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy, and I will not vote for an exception to this rule.' Mattis' wartime experiences as a 'fighting general' and his intellect have won him strong early reviews from Republicans and Democrats, including Rep. Adam Schiff, the top...

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) came out against Donald Trump’s selection of retired Marine Gen. James Mattis for secretary of Defense, saying she would not support a necessary congressional waiver to allow him to take on the role. Gillibrand is the first lawmaker to oppose waiving the prohibition on former military officers heading the Pentagon less than seven years after retiring. “While I deeply respect General Mattis’s service, I will oppose a waiver,” she said in a statement. “Civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy, and I will not vote for an exception to this rule.”...

Donald Trump has picked an honorable, thoughtful, and courageous warrior to lead the Pentagon. He knows how to lead men in battle. He’s an outstanding strategic thinker, and he’s unencumbered by politically correct nonsense. Trump’s cabinet is shaping up very well indeed, but this choice is his best and most crucial personnel decision yet. No one can doubt General Mattis’s credentials. The Washington Post has a nice summary: Mattis, whose nicknames include “Mad Dog” and the “Warrior Monk,” has had a leading hand in some of the U.S. military’s most significant operations in the last 20 years. As a one-star...

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen retired Marine Gen. James N. Mattis to be secretary of defense, according to people familiar with the decision, nominating a former senior military officer who led operations across the Middle East to run the Pentagon less than four years after he hung up his uniform. To take the job, Mattis will need Congress to pass new legislation to bypass a federal law stating that defense secretaries must not have been on active duty in the previous seven years. Congress has granted a similar exception

Trump just officially announced Gen. James Mathis for SECDEF at his "Thank You" rally in Cincinnati! !!

The Washington Post first broke the news today from “sources within the Trump transition team” that President-elect Trump had selected General James “Mad Dog” Mattis as his Secretary of Defense. After every major media outlet in the country, including this one, reported it, Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, wrote on Twitter that “no decision has been made yet with regard to Secretary of Defense.” According to CNN, the official announcement is expected early next week. Following the mass media confusion, Jason Miller told The Washington Examiner: “My sources are better than their sources. Trust me on that one.” According to...

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen retired Marine Gen. James N. Mattis to be secretary of defense, nominating a former senior military officer who led operations across the Middle East to run the Pentagon less than four years after he hung up his uniform, according to people familiar with the decision.

Among those in the Marine Corps I taught and deployed with, Gen. (ret.) Jim Mattis is a legend. The quotes, the foxholes, the knife hands. Everyone has their favorite story. I once handed Mattis a Diet Coke out of a cooler at Quantico. A mundane act? Yes. But I’ve remembered it fondly for 12 years. He is Chaos, Mad Dog, and the warrior monk. But we should not add secretary of defense to that list. I have long thought of Mattis as a “break glass in case of emergency” type of leader. He was uniquely suited to his roles in...

Jim Webb is, at least in a nominal sense, a Democrat. Last year, he briefly pursued the Democratic nomination for president, a run best remembered for his joke about killing the Vietnamese soldier who threw a grenade at him. Now Webb is singing Donald Trump’s praises, and may have his eye on a cabinet job. “I would like to salute Donald Trump for his tenacity and for the uniqueness of his campaign,” Webb during a speech to a hundred or so attendees at a foreign policy symposium in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. To hear Webb tell it, in fact, he...

The Trump team has added a name to its list of potential candidates for secretary of defense — outgoing Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), according to two sources familiar with the ongoing discussions. If chosen, Ayotte would stand out in a Trump administration as a neoconservative defense hawk and one of the few women in the incoming Trump Cabinet. No decisions have been made and the current list for possible defense secretary picks still centers around retired Army Lt. Gen. Joseph “Keith” Kellogg, former Defense Intelligence Agency director Gen. Mike Flynn and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). Flynn would need a congressional...

Outgoing Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., is at the top of President-elect Trump's list for secretary of defense, according to a Washington Post report published Friday evening. Other candidates up for the Pentagon chief slot are retired Army Lt. Gen. Joseph "Keith" Kellogg, former Defense Intelligence Agency director Gen. Mike Flynn and Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions. snip.... Sources said Ayotte's neoconservative background would help her serve as a liaison between the GOP establishment in Congress and Trump administration. She would also be the first woman to oversee the Defense Department.