The Big Story 

President Trump’s former national security adviser, Mike Waltz, emerged from a Senate confirmation hearing largely unscathed over his role in mistakenly adding a journalist to a group chat discussing sensitive military attack plans.

© The Hill, Greg Nash

While some Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee promised a “brutal” hearing for Waltz’s nomination as ambassador for the United Nations, his confirmation is nearly guaranteed in the Republican-controlled Senate, and lawmakers generally focused their questions on substance rather than scrutiny. 

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) delivered one of the most scathing rebukes of Waltz and appeared to get under his skin. Booker criticized Waltz, a former Army colonel, Green Beret and three-term Republican congressman from Florida as showing “profound cowardice.” 

“At a moment where our national security was clearly compromised, you denied, you deflected, and then you demeaned and degraded those people who objectively told the truth and criticized your actions,” Booker said. 

“I appreciate the men and women that I’ve had to lead in combat, and I think the last thing they would call me is a coward,” Waltz said, pushing back.

Trump removed Waltz from his position as national security adviser in May in the wake of scrutiny and criticism over the sloppy handling of the Signal chat. The role was taken over by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But Trump retained Waltz as an adviser, keeping in place his nearly $200,000 salary and nominating him for the United Nations post.

The move served a number of functions. It offered Waltz a small rebuke for the fallout from the Signal chat but kept him at a senior-level position with the administration. The U.N. ambassador is traditionally a Cabinet position.

Waltz replaced Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y), who was originally nominated as ambassador but whom Trump decided to keep in the House to protect the GOP’s slim majority. 

Republicans lined up behind Waltz, calling him “one of the most well qualified U.S. ambassador nominees to the United Nations ever” and describing him as a man of “integrity, grit and principle.”

Democratic fury over “Signalgate” is centered on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for publishing the timing and sequencing of military attack plans in the Signal chat. They were slightly more forgiving to Waltz during the hearing. 

Read the full report at TheHill.com.

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