Mike Waltz grapples with ‘Signalgate’ during UN confirmation hearing
US ambassador to the UN nominee Mike Waltz was forced to confront “Signalgate” during his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday — and insist he wasn’t technically fired as national security adviser over it.
Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee grilled Waltz over the Signal group-chat scandal involving him and a slew of Trump administration officials — accusing him of outright lying about how Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to the chat, which involved planning the mid-March airstrikes on the Houthis.
“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,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) grumbled to Waltz, who was national security adviser at the time.
“Signalgate” wasn’t a top focus for lawmakers on the panel, but after about an hour into the hearing, Democrats made sure to dredge it up and pummel Waltz over it as they weigh his UN confirmation.
“There was no classified information on that chat,” Waltz countered, a point he reiterated multiple times during the hearing.
Waltz has been accused of accidentally adding Goldberg to the discussion.
While the Trump administration has maintained that there was technically no information on the leaked chat deemed classified, published versions of it show that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth messaged times and targets for the US’ military strikes against the Houthis.
Perhaps the most forceful Democrat who Waltz faced Tuesday was Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who accused him of being untruthful about how Goldberg was added to the Signal chat.
Initially, Waltz claimed he never met the Atlantic’s top editor and implied Goldberg’s number had been inadvertently added to his phone.
“I’ve seen you not only fail to stand up, but lie,” Booker fumed, accusing the UN nominee of exhibiting “profound cowardice.”
“That’s not leadership when you blame people that tell the truth,” Booker said. “That’s not leadership when you can’t say the words, ‘I made a mistake. I could have done better.’ ”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) also underscored that “Signal has not been approved for use by U.S. government officials for the sharing of classified information.”
Waltz stressed that Signal’s use was encouraged by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) during the Biden administration, though he later admitted that it was not designated for sharing classified information — although he still insisted wasn’t shared in the leaked chat.
About a month after the Signalgate scandal, Trump announced that he would nominate Waltz as his US ambassador to the UN and make Secretary of State Marco Rubio his acting national security adviser.
In the time since, Waltz has maintained a paycheck from the White House over his role as an adviser, he said.
“I was not fired. The president never said that, nor did the vice president,” Waltz told Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.)
Should Waltz get confirmed, he will fill the UN role that has been held by Dorothy Shea in an acting capacity since January. Trump had initially nominated Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) for the post but later withdrew her nomination in March amid fears about winnowing the razor-thin House GOP majority if she gave up her seat for it.