A Democratic senator anticipated that former national security adviser Mike Waltz will face a "brutal hearing" as he seeks to become President Donald Trump's next ambassador to the UN, especially given his involvement in Signalgate.
Speaking to CBS News, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who is part of the Upper House's Foreign Relations Committee, said Waltz is "not qualified for the job, just by nature of the fact that he participated in this Signal chain."
Duckworth was making reference to the scandal in which senior Trump officials discussed highly sensitive matters regarding an upcoming attack on Yemen's Houthi rebels in the messaging app in March. Waltz inadvertently added The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat, who ended up reporting on the conversation.
The senator went on to say that Waltz is "failing in his job and getting promoted to be ambassador. That's not what our nation needs at the United Nations." She anticipated that she is "not open to voting for him" as Waltz has "already demonstrated he's incapable of doing the most basic thing, which is handling classified information."
Democrats are expected to grill Waltz during the hearing. Most members of the committee signed a letter in late March a letter demanding that Trump provide answers about Signalgate. Trump was among them.
"It does not take much imagination to consider the likely ramifications if this information had been made public prior to the strike – or worse, if it had been shared with or visible to an adversary rather than a reporter who seems to have a better grasp of how to handle classified information than your National Security Advisor," the senators said.
Other Democrats are also sharpening their knives. "I look forward to a thorough confirmation hearing," said Senator Chris Coons in response to a post showing Waltz checking Signal during a recent Trump cabinet meeting.
"I think there's obvious questions about the treatment of classified or sensitive information, use of Signal, how the whole episode of Signal unfolded," Coons said in an interview last Thursday. However, he clarified that he also wants to "talk about United Nations, how he understands our security, because I think a lot of the moves by the Trump administration have made our nation less secure, not more secure."
Sen. Tim Kaine, on his end, told The Washington Post Waltz "should be prepared to answer pointed questions." Sen. Shaheen added that the development is "further proof of the chaos and incompetence that has reigned" over the Trump administration.
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