WASHINGTON—Gen. James Mattis’s confirmation hearing for defense secretary before the Senate Arms Services Committee on Thursday lasted 3 1/2 hours, a relatively brief and uncontentious proceeding compared with other hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees.
Decked in pins, beads and bright pink clothing, protesters Tighe Barry and Medea Benjamin from the anti-war group, Code Pink were first in line among members of the public to enter the hearing. While they waited, they listened to a podcast about Mattis’s role in Iraq. Both said they were concerned that Mattis might be hawkish in his new role.
“Mad Dog is not a term of endearment,” Barry said, referring to the nickname Mattis received following a particularly hard battle during the Iraq War.
Barry, Benjamin and three other Code Pink members who sat in the front row of the public gallery in the hearing room were not disruptive to the committee, but occasionally raised their hands above their heads and made “V-for-Victory” peace signs. Most of the time, they spoke with one another at a low volume, commenting on the proceedings.
Their loudest outburst came when Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., asked if Mattis’s family were in the audience.
“They are safely west of the Rockies,” said Mattis.
“Be grateful they aren’t an Iraqi family,” called out Barry, loud enough for everyone to hear.
One woman near the protesters called them “rude,” adding “you need to be respectful of other people. If you’re trying to do free speech, remember there’s other people there.”
Still, compared with other Code Pink protesters who were almost immediately expelled Wednesday from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Rex Tillerson, these five were not disruptive to the proceedings—just to the people around them.
However, the Code Pink protesters did not stay at the Mattis hearing for long. Though not ejected, they all left the room sometime before noon.
One other organization also attended the Mattis hearing, a group of men and women clad in yellow windbreakers with “#FreeIran” on the back, saying they were members of the Organization of Iranian Americans Committee.
“We are here to express ourselves for a free, secular, democratic Iran,” said spokesman Magid Sadeghpour. “We want no appeasement and no war.”
While the Code Pink protesters were sometimes demonstrative, the Iranian-American protesters were silent throughout the proceedings.
The same woman who complained that the Code Pink protesters were “disrespectful” said she had approached this group and complimented them for being “very polite.”
Sadeghpour said later he thought the hearing went very well. He said that he was happy that when the issue of Iran came up, Iran was referred to “as the center of terrorism and the [biggest] problem we are facing in the Middle East.”
As far as confirmation hearings go, this one was quick. Questioning ended by 12:30 p.m. and the committee voted 20 minutes later in favor of waiver that would allow Mattis to serve as defense secretary. The total time spent in session? Three and a half hours.
Compared with other committee hearings, nine hours spent questioning Tillerson, the secretary of state nominee, or two-days devoted to attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, the brief hearing was a nod the general’s status as a noncontroversial nominee with bipartisan support.
One person in the audience, Eric Reed, visiting Washington, D.C. from Texas, said he had come to “see some history on Capitol Hill.”
“Mr. Sessions’s hearing was pretty tied up,” he said, referring to the multiple protests and ejections during the nominee’s hearings Tuesday and Wednesday, but this one was “pretty quiet.” Reed said he assumed the contrasts between the two hearings had something to do with “respect for [Mattis] as an individual.”
Other attendees agreed, saying that the general’s status as a decorated soldier and leader made him highly respected by the committee and the audience.
“Mattis is a solid guy,” said one audience member. “Everyone here loves this guy.”
Published in conjunction with 