Mike Waltz, the former U.S. national security advisor and congressman, vowed to fight antisemitism at the United Nations if confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to the global body.
At his nomination hearing on Tuesday, Waltz described the problem of Jew-hatred at the world’s largest multilateral organization as “pervasive.”
“I could probably spend the rest of this hearing, sadly, highlighting the antisemitic activities,” Waltz said. “From 2015 to 2023, the General Assembly passed 154 resolutions against Israel versus 71 against all other nations combined.”
“UNRWA in Gaza, with its staff involved in the Oct. 7 massacre, its schools teaching antisemitic hate, must be dismantled,” he added, referring to the U.N.’s Palestinian aid agency.
Democrats on the committee grilled Waltz about his involvement in adding Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to an encrypted group chat with senior U.S. officials in March to discuss forthcoming airstrikes on the Houthis in Yemen.
“I’ve seen you not only fail to stand up, but lie,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). “You said this journalist intentionally infiltrated that Signal chain. You said that he was ‘sucked in.’ You denied, deflected and then you did something that, to me, really lacks integrity.”
“You sought out to demean and degrade that very journalist in crass and frankly cruel ways that made him a target,” Booker said. “That’s not leadership when you blame people who tell the truth.”
Waltz was removed as national security advisor in May when U.S. President Donald Trump named him as his pick to be U.N. ambassador. Trump withdrew his nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) for that post to help preserve a very thin Republican majority in the House.
Waltz denied during Tuesday’s hearing that Trump had fired him and said that no classified information was shared.
At least two Department of Defense investigations remain underway to determine whether the group chat included classified information. The most relevant information was sent by U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, not Waltz.
Waltz also faced questions from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) over his vote for an amendment to prevent U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2020 during the first Trump administration.
“When it comes to ending a war, you voted with Liz Cheney and the others to say that the president couldn’t end the war,” Paul said. “I just don’t understand how you could have voted for this.”
“It just worries me that you come more from the Liz Cheney wing of the party than the Donald Trump wing of the party,” Paul said.
“Senator, I am squarely with the president,” Waltz replied.
Waltz also faced criticism from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), one of Israel’s sharpest critics in the Senate, about American support for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
“It’s been called a death trap,” Van Hollen said of the foundation’s aid points. “Hundreds of Palestinian civilians crowding to get food have been killed either by the security contractors, mercenaries or by the IDF.” (Israel and the foundation have sharply denied such claims.)
Waltz said his sympathies are with two American aid workers, who were wounded in a Hamas grenade attack at a foundation distribution site earlier in July.
“I don’t think this should be a zero sum,” Waltz said. “I do agree that it is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. I hope you would agree that Hamas could stop it tomorrow by laying down their arms.”
