STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some news now. Former National Security Adviser Michael Waltz is still on the White House payroll, some time after being pushed aside after adding a journalist to a sensitive group chat about military strikes on Yemen. That information about the payroll came out yesterday, as Waltz took questions ahead of what he hopes will be his next administration job. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: At his Senate confirmation hearing to become the ambassador to the United Nations, Waltz defended his use of the encrypted Signal app and said he didn't face any consequences for mistakenly adding a journalist to a group chat about airstrikes in Yemen.
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MICHAEL WALTZ: I was not fired. The president never said that, nor did the vice president. I was kept on as an adviser, transitioning a number of important activities, and now hope to be confirmed.
KELEMEN: Waltz, a former Florida congressman and Army Special Forces officer, says no classified information was shared, though that's still under investigation. And he says Biden-era cybersecurity experts recommended using Signal. That didn't sit well with New Jersey Democrat Senator Cory Booker.
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CORY BOOKER: I just watched with great disappointment that even after weeks, if not months, of reflection, you couldn't sit before this committee and take some responsibility and talk constructively about what's learned. Instead, you do what seems to be yet another creative tool that people are doing, which is, hey, let me just blame Biden.
KELEMEN: Booker calls this cowardice and says it should be disqualifying. But Waltz won praise from Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is likely to be approved for the U.N. post. Chairman Jim Risch of Idaho says it's time to demand, in his words, radical transparency and genuine reform at the United Nations.
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JIM RISCH: Mr. Waltz, I trust that you will work with President Trump to right the many wrongs that exist today at the United Nations.
KELEMEN: That includes standing up to China, which Waltz says he will do. The ranking Democrat on the committee, Jeanne Shaheen, says the Trump administration has been ceding ground to China by slashing the U.S. foreign aid budget and other soft power tools.
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JEANNE SHAHEEN: If we walk away from international bodies like the U.N., the result won't be reforms that advance American interests. The result will be that international bodies become increasingly dependent on China.
KELEMEN: Senator Shaheen says she believes most Americans don't want to live in a world where the Chinese Communist Party is driving the global agenda.
Michele Kelemen, NPR News, the State Department.
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