Senate Democrats laid into Mike Waltz over his role in the Signalgate scandal during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
Waltz, Trump’s former national security adviser, came in for a grilling from lawmakers as he’s seeking confirmation as the new U.S. ambassador to the UN. While appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Waltz defended using the encypted messaging app Signal to discuss sensitive and potentially classified information in March. In the wake of Signalgate, Waltz was removed as national security adviser.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., expressed his disappointment in Waltz’s lack of regret for mishandling “demonstrably sensitive information.”
“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’s not, as we both know, the appropriate way to share such critical information,” Coons said.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., brought up the ongoing investigations around the app, and said adding The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat was an “amateurish move.”
Taking a page out of Trump’s book, Waltz blamed the use of Signal on former President Joe Biden, saying the app was “not only authorized, it was recommended” by Biden’s administration.
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Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, criticized Waltz’s inability to take accountability. Booker said Waltz “denied” and “deflected” rather than own up to his mistakes, something the New Jersey senator said is a “failure of leadership.” He called Waltz’s actions a show of “profound cowardice.”
“I cannot support your nomination. I think you’ve shown a failure of leadership at a time that America especially needs people of honor to stand up and show what leadership actually is,” Booker said.
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