Senate Dem Flabbergasted By Top Trump Official’s Lack of ‘Regret’ For Sharing Military Information on Signal

Sen. Chris Coons (D-CT) expressed his undeniable frustrations with President Donald Trump’s nominee to be UN ambassador, Mike Waltz, during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, in which Coons found Waltz to be lacking in regret over his role in Signalgate.

Coons began his questioning by recalling the scandal from several months ago and Waltz’s role in it, “We both know Signal is not an appropriate, secure means of communicating highly sensitive information. And yet, on March 24th, the Atlantic Magazine published a series of Signal messages, including sensitive information about a U.S. military operation against the Houthis in Yemen involving you and several other Trump officials. Were you investigated for this disclosure of sensitive operational information on Signal?”

Waltz replied by claiming his use of Signal was recommended by the “cybersecurity, infrastructure security agency by the Biden administration, the CISA guidance.”

Coons tried to protest as Waltz continued, “No, excuse me. The use of Signal is not only, as an encrypted app is not only authorized, it was recommended. In Biden’s, the Biden-era CISA guidance. And in fact, if you, it says here, I’ll read it to you. Use only end-to-end encrypted communications. Adopt a free messaging application to secure communications that guarantees end-to-end encryption, particularly if you are a highly targeted individual, such as Signal or similar apps. CISA recommends end-to-end encryption messaging on both government and personal devices.”

“For sensitive military—” Coons questioned as Waltz replied, “Oh, of course. Of course, Senator, there was no classified information exchanged.”

Coons followed up, “Sensitive military operations. You were sharing details about an upcoming air strike and the time of launch and the potential targets. I mean, this was demonstrably sensitive information, and the question I asked was: were you investigated for this expansion of the Signal group to include a journalist?”

Waltz replied, “The White House conducted an investigation, and my understanding is the Department of Defense is still conducting an investigation.”

Coons followed up, “Was any disciplinary action?”

Waltz replied by asking, “From the White House investigation?”

“Yes,” Coons clarified as Waltz added, “No, the use of Signal was not only authorized, it’s still authorized and highly recommended.”

Coons pressed, “Would you recommend the use of Signal for classified information to be shared between folks who have access to it?”

Waltz pushed back, “Again, we followed the recommendation, almost the demand, to use end-to-end encryption, but there was no classified information shared.”

“Did you speak to Secretary Hegseth about his decision to share detailed information on the specifics of an imminent military strike?” Coons continued.

Waltz hit back, “What we spoke about, Senator, was a highly successful mission that did something that the Biden administration did not do, was actually target the Houthi leadership. We subsequently saw a ceasefire, an increase in shipping, and a drop in attacks on our ships.”

Coons then expressed his concern, saying, “Well, look, here’s what I hear on this exchange, and I want to get to the UN point. At the time, you took responsibility for having added a journalist inadvertently to a Signal chat, but it doesn’t seem to me that the administration has taken any action to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

“There’s been no consequences, and yet the president continues to denounce those who leak information. We both know Signal is not a secure way to convey classified information, and 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,” concluded the Democrat.

“Again, Senator, I think where we have a fundamental disagreement is there was no classified information on that chat,” Waltz repeated.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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