Mike Waltz's Confirmation Hearing: Democrats Set To Grill Trump Ally On Signalgate

Former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz has been nominated by President Donald Trump to be the next U.S. ambassador to the UN.

The move sets up a showdown at Waltz's confirmation hearing considering Democrats have been extremely critical of his involvement in Signalgate, the incident in which he inadvertently added a journalist to a chat where highly sensitive information regarding an upcoming attack on Yemen's Houthi rebels was discussed.

Most Democrats holding posts in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee signed in late March a letter demanding that Trump provide answers about Signalgate. They claimed to be "gravely concerned" by the "appalling" reports.

"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 added in reference to Mike Waltz. "This is an astonishingly cavalier approach to national security."

Among those who signed the letters are Tim Kaine, Cory Booker, Brian Schatz, Jeanne Shaheen, Tammy Duckworth and Chris Van Hollen, six of the ten party members in the body.

Chris Murphy, another committee member who did not sign the letter, said the episode "destroyed American credibility" in an interview,

There is still no set date for the hearing. In the meantime Secretary of State Marco Rubio will hold the post, Trump said on Thursday.

Waltz will now try to get the post that Trump abruptly took from Rep. Elise Stefanik over concerns about holding on to the Lower House earlier this year.