President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Mike Waltz was dragged over the coals by Democrats on Tuesday during a hearing on Capitol Hill where he was repeatedly grilled over Signalgate.
The former Florida congressman was accused of lying, cowardice and showing little remorse after the leak of the group chat on the messaging app where top Trump officials discussed a U.S. strike in Yemen earlier this year.
The former Florida congressman was appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a confirmation hearing to become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations after he was fired as Trump’s national security adviser in May only to be offered the plum role in New York representing the U.S. in the international body.
“What’s been troubling to me about your nomination from the beginning is your failure to just stand up and take accountability for mistakes that you made and that all Americans know that you’ve made,” Senator Cory Booker said. “I’ve seen you not only fail to stand up but lie.”
After the Signal chat leaked, it was reported that it was Waltz who added The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat. Booker listed excuses Waltz made after his role in the leak was revealed.
“You denied, deflected and then you did something that to me really lacks integrity, it’s that you sought out to demean and degrade that very journalist in crass and frankly cruel ways that made him a target. That’s not leadership,” said Booker, who blasted Waltz for “profound cowardice.”
When Signalgate was first brought up by Democrats in the hearing, Waltz went so far as to blame the Biden administration for Trump officials sharing sensitive military info in the Signal chat.
“Were you investigated for disclosure of sensitive operational information on Signal?” asked Senator Chris Coons.
“That engagement was driven by and recommended by the cyber security infrastructure security agency, by the Biden administration CISA guidance,” Waltz responded. “The use of Signal is not only, as an encrypted app is not only authorized, it was recommended in the Biden era CISA guidance.”
Waltz came prepared with the printed messaging guidance which he read back to the senator. Coons skeptically asked if that was included for “sensitive military information.” Waltz insisted “of course” but also argued that no classified information was shared.
In the testy exchange, Coons pointed out that the group was sharing details about the strike including the time of launch and potential targets. He called it “demonstrably sensitive information.”
“We both know Signal is not a secure way to convey classified information, and I was hoping to hear from you that you had some sense of regret over sharing what was very sensitive timely information about a military strike on a commercially available app that is not as we both know the appropriate way to share such critical information,” Coons said.
Waltz argued there was a fundamental disagreement over information shared being classified, but the blistering line of questioning did not stop there.
Senator Tim Kaine noted that there are two ongoing Defense Department investigations still looking into whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared classified information which had yet to reach a conclusion.
Waltz admitted he could not comment on ongoing investigations but repeated Hegseth’s claim that no classified info was shared.
“I got it. I’m sure Secretary Hegseth says he didn’t share any classified information,” Kaine shot back snarkily. “But the fact of the matter is there are two investigations going on at the Pentagon precisely to determine in an objective and independent way whether classified information was shared.”
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