When President Donald Trump appointed Mike Waltz to serve as his national security adviser, Waltz didn’t need a Senate confirmation hearing. With his new nomination — to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations — Waltz won’t be so lucky.
Senate Democrats have plenty of ammunition to go after Waltz. And they plan to make his confirmation hearing a proxy battle on a number of issues, from the Trump administration’s most embarrassing scandal thus far to the president’s approach to international institutions.
Waltz’s accidental inclusion of a journalist in a Signal chat discussing classified information is sure to come up repeatedly during his confirmation. But so, too, will recent votes at the U.N., where the U.S. sided with countries like North Korea and Russia, and apparent disagreements between Trump and Waltz over Iran. (The Iran split reportedly may have been the last straw for Waltz as national security adviser.)
While Waltz’s confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled, Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are already gearing up to grill him. And senators who spoke to NOTUS this week suggested they had a major concern, perhaps even greater than Signal-gate: the administration’s commitment to international institutions like the U.N.
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“It’s gonna be a hard one,” said Sen. Tim Kaine. “I think the Signal-gate stuff certainly will be a major note in the chord, but there will be other things as well.”
“He’ll have a lot to answer for,” said Sen. Chris Coons. “I think he will need to explain his mishandling of sensitive information, and I would hope to hear that he has some respect for the institution of the United Nations.”
Kaine said the confirmation hearing would be another chance to check on the Trump administration’s vision for the U.N. When they questioned his last nominee, Rep. Elise Stefanik, the second Trump presidency was only a day old.
Stefanik told the committee that Trump supported the U.N. as long as it aligned with his agenda. She wanted to conduct a full review of U.N. programs and U.S. contributions to root out where “American values” weren’t being upheld.
It’s unclear if Waltz will take a different tack, but his boss is carrying out his own skeptical vision of the U.N. without an ambassador.
By executive order in February, Trump already withdrew the U.S. from the U.N. organizations he takes the most issue with: the Human Rights Council and the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Trump ordered a review of U.S. participation in UNESCO, the results of which were due May 5 but are not yet public.
His agenda has also been on full display in the General Assembly.
Waltz’s confirmation hearing will therefore have plenty more receipts than Stefanik’s. It’s the first chance for Democrats to question two different nominees for the same administration role.
“Some of it will be about Rep. Waltz, but some of it’s going to be really about the strategy they have about the U.N.,” Kaine said, though he added that he “doesn’t have a preconception” about Waltz’s personal view of international institutions.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said she’s primarily interested in asking Waltz about policy.
“I would like to hear about his commitment to the U.N. and U.N.-related organizations,” Shaheen said.
As for Signal-gate, that’s not something she plans to ask him about.
“He took responsibility for it. Unlike Hegseth,” Shaheen said.
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Helen Huiskes is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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