Democratic lawmakers laid into former national security adviser Mike Waltz on Tuesday over his role in the Signalgate messaging scandal — saying he lied about aspects of the leaked chats and castigating him for the fact that U.S. officials shared sensitive and potentially classified information on the app.
“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,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), speaking at the nomination for Waltz to become the Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) argued that Waltz had made false assertions about how a journalist was added to the chat, saying “I’ve seen you not only fail to stand up, but lie.”
Waltz, for his part, blamed the Biden administration for approving the use of the messaging app, saying that the app was “not only authorized, it was recommended” by the Biden administration’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure agency. He said there was no classified military information discussed in any Signal chats he was part of.
In March, The Atlantic reported its editor in chief was included in an unsecured Signal group chat with top Cabinet members — including Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — to coordinate plans to launch air strikes against the Houthi militant group in Yemen.
Trump administration officials have repeatedly denied that any classified information was shared in the chat. Democrats on Congressional intelligence panels and former national security officials have insisted that the information in the chats, which were released in full by The Atlantic, would be considered highly classified.
