00:00Mr. Chairman, thank you to all the nominees, your families, your willingness to serve our nation.
00:05And if I might, Mr. Waltz, or forgive me, Colonel Congressman Waltz, my thanks to you and to your wife, Julia,
00:12who's also served our nation, as you mentioned in introduction, in combat, and to your family.
00:19I want to get to the larger questions of the UN and the UN mission, but in your role in the Army, in the House,
00:25as National Security Advisor, you have long handled classified and highly sensitive information.
00:31We both know Signal is not an appropriate, secure means of communicating highly sensitive information.
00:38And yet, on March 24th, the Atlantic Magazine published a series of Signal messages,
00:44including sensitive information about a U.S. military operation against the Houthis in Yemen,
00:49involving you and several other Trump officials.
00:51Were you investigated for this disclosure of sensitive operational information on Signal?
00:59Thank you, Senator.
01:00And that engagement was driven by and recommended by the Cyber Security Infrastructure Security Agency,
01:12by the Biden administration, CISA guidance.
01:15I'm sorry.
01:15And I have here, well, just the use of Signal.
01:18Share information on Signal.
01:19The use of, no, excuse me.
01:20The use of Signal is not only, as an encrypted app, is not only authorized,
01:27it was recommended in Biden's, the Biden era CISA guidance.
01:32And in fact, if you, it says here, I'll read it to you.
01:36Use only end-to-end encrypted communications.
01:39Adopt a free messaging application to secure communications that guarantees end-to-end encryption,
01:44particularly if you are a highly targeted individual, such as Signal or similar apps.
01:51CISA recommends end-to-end encryption messaging on both government and personal devices.
01:58For sensitive military operational information.
02:01Oh, of course.
02:02Of course, Senator.
02:03There was no classified information exchange.
02:06You were sharing details about an upcoming airstrike and the time of launch and the potential targets.
02:16I mean, this was demonstrably sensitive information.
02:20And the question I asked was, were you investigated for this expansion of the Signal group to include a journalist?
02:27The White House conducted an investigation, and my understanding is the Department of Defense is still conducting an investigation.
02:36Was any disciplinary action taken?
02:40From the White House investigation center?
02:43Yes.
02:44No, the use of Signal was not only authorized, it's still authorized and highly recommended.
02:50Would you recommend the use of Signal for classified information to be shared between folks who have access to?
02:55Again, we followed the recommendation, almost the demand, to use end-to-end encryption, but there was no classified information shared.
03:06Did you speak to Secretary Hegseth about his decision to share detailed information on the specifics of an imminent military strength?
03:15What we spoke about, Senator, was a highly successful mission.
03:20That did something that the Biden administration did not do, was actually target the Houthi leadership.
03:27We subsequently saw a ceasefire, an increase in shipping, and a drop in attacks on our ships.
03:32Well, look, here's what I hear on this exchange, and I want to get to the UN point.
03:37At 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's taken any action to make sure this doesn't happen again.
03:50There's been no consequences, and yet the president continues to denounce those who leak information.
03:56We 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.
04:16Again, Senator, I think where we have a fundamental disagreement is there was no classified information on that chat.
04:25I'm going to move on for a moment, but we've got plenty more to discuss on that point.
04:30China in the UN system, there was plenty of agreement on this side of the dais, and I think with you, that we need to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias in the UN.
04:40We need to ensure taxpayer dollars are well spent.
04:42We need to engage in our world, and from your service on the China task force, you know very well what a central challenge for us China is.
04:54Yet across organizations, the ITU, the FAO, UNESCO, WIPO, I think the only way we successfully push back on China's influence is by being at the table, driving reform.
05:06When President Trump withdrew from the World Health Organization, the Chinese sent their largest delegation ever to the next meeting.
05:14They've contributed $500 million.
05:15They're now the biggest contributor.
05:17I can understand some of the frustrations or concerns that led to the withdrawal from UNESCO, but in the last Congress, with Israeli support, I led our rejoining UNESCO.
05:27We've talked about, you've mentioned earlier today, standard-setting bodies as being essential.
05:32How do you balance a budget request that dramatically reduces our contributions to the UN with needing to be at the table to fight for the standards, whether it's telecommunications, civil aviation, intellectual property?
05:46You just waved, here's this great big list of organizations, many of them do critical things.
05:52How are you going to strike that balance appropriately, sir?
05:56Thank you, Senator, and it was good to discuss this with you.
05:59I will point out in the President's budget request, there is funding for IAEA, for the International Civil Aviation Organization, for the Organization Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, for the ITU, for the IMO, and maritime.
06:14And so, I look forward to working with you and working with this committee on how we make those decisions, of where we engage, and then how we engage.
06:23But I think we're in violent agreement that we have to block and tackle Chinese influence.
06:26Would you pledge to not support just unilateral withdrawal from these organizations?
06:32I will certainly support and follow the Secretary and the President's guidance as we weigh that engagement through these reviews.
