Trump steals Mike Waltz for the UN ambassador after the “signal gate” scandal
President Donald Trump has appointed former national security adviser Mike Waltz as UN ambassador after leaving the post on “Signalgate.”
WASHINGTON – Two Democrat senators said former national security adviser Mike Waltz should expect a “brutal” confirmation hearing for the UN ambassador and should anticipate harsh questions from lawmakers after using signals to discuss highly sensitive details about the planned US military strike in March.
President Donald Trump said on May 1 that he removed Waltz as national security adviser and made him the UN ambassador.
“I think it’s going to be a brutal confirmation hearing,” said D-Virginia, a member of the Senate Intelligence Agency, of CNN. “I think he’ll ask difficult questions not just from Democrats but from Republicans.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat on the Diplomatic Relations Panel, agreed to CBS.
“It would be a brutal and brutal hearing. He is essentially not qualified for the job, because of the fact that he joined this signal chain,” Duckworth said.
Signal chat big failure
The careless inclusion of journalists in a text chain where members of the president’s cabinet discussed attacks on Yemen’s Houthi rebels before it happened has driven out of power since it was made public in late March. The administration denied that the classified information was shared.
But it rarely quelled a push from Democrats to expel key players in the conversation, including the Secretary of Defense, who shared details of the attack in an encrypted but commercially available application.
Trump quickly fired no one. Last week, Trump announced that he was leaving the position of national security advisor, naming him a candidate for the UN ambassador. Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will simultaneously serve his cabinet role and fill the foreseeable future White House national security position work.
Trump has drawn out former UN candidate GOP MP Elise Stefanik. Waltz is one of the Republicans who resigned from Congress to join the Trump administration.
Waltz admitted to making a “mistake” on Signal Chat and took “all responsibility” in an interview with Fox News.
Warner said in a May 4 interview with CNN that Hegses should have been fired. Hegseth reportedly shared details of the attack in a second group chat, including his wife, brother and lawyer.
Duckworth told CNN that everyone involved in the chat created by Waltz should be rejected from their position, including members of Trump Ministers and top White House advisors.
“I think everyone in that signal chain needs to be fired because one of them spoke up and said this was inappropriate. We should be in a safe channel,” she said.
Vice President JD Vance argued in an interview with Fox News that Waltz’s new role could be considered a promotion. In an interview aired on NBC on May 4th, Trump said the removal of waltz as a national security adviser is not a punishment.
“Mike, you know, he was a respectable guy. And I think he’s going to do a very good job – he knows the country, he knows leadership, and he’s going to do very good things at the UN,” Trump said.
