Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) tore into ex-NSA chief Mike Waltz on Tuesday, accusing President Donald Trump’s nominee for UN ambassador of “profound cowardice” in failing to take responsibility for his role in the Signalgate scandal earlier this year.

The rebuke came as Waltz, now President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, testified at his Senate confirmation hearing.

“I’ve been really disappointed,” Booker began as he addressed Waltz:

I’ve heard you just blame Biden. I’ve seen you not only fail to stand up, but lie. You said about this person when you were involved in the sharing of sensitive information about imminent military operations — I’ve listened to you now for weeks and months.

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 to demean and degrade that very journalist in crass and frankly cruel ways that made him a target.

That’s not leadership when you blame people that tell the truth. That’s not leadership when you can’t say the words, ‘I made a mistake. I could have done better. I learned valuable lessons from this experience.’ Instead, at a moment when our national security was clearly compromised, you denied, deflected, and then you demeaned and degraded those people who objectively told the truth and criticized your actions. Smearing people and attacking folks, singling them out, just further compounds what I think is disqualifying about you for this position.

“It also, to me, just shows profound cowardice,” Booker added.

Back in March, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was invited to a chat on the Signal messaging app, which included Waltz, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Vice President JD Vance — among others.

No one seemed to notice Goldberg’s presence in the chat until he revealed his presence in an article published in The Atlantic.

Waltz was dismissed from his role at the NSA on May 1 as a result. He was replaced by Rubio on an interim basis.

Watch above via C-SPAN.

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