WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday questioned former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz at a confirmation hearing on his nomination to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Murphy demanded answers from Waltz on the Trump administration’s decision to cede ground to Russia and China in the global information war by shutting down USAGM, the umbrella agency for American foreign media operations such as Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. He also pushed Waltz about the Trump administration’s failure to disrupt Houthi attacks against American allies and commercial shipping in the Red Sea. 

Murphy highlighted the Trump administration’s reckless dismantling of American counter-propaganda capabilities: “This administration, while you were at the NSC, essentially shut down USAGM, which is the umbrella agency for our global media operations, fired 92% of the staff, announced plans to shut down Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. They’re only open today because of court orders. The administration does not support the Global Engagement Center, which is also now shut down, which was the State Department's ability to try to work with partners around the world to counter Chinese propaganda and Russian propaganda.” 

Stressing that the administration’s decisions will further empower our adversaries and set back U.S. national security interests, Murphy continued: “We were already having circles run around us by Russia and by China predominantly even before the administration went forward with this essential destruction of our existing information and counter-propaganda capacity. So maybe just share with me: while you were National Security Adviser, why did you believe that it advanced U.S. national security interests to shut down our most important agencies that try to win the information war, which is a war that whether we like it or not, exists in this world, and we’re not fighting it today, while our adversaries are?” 

On Waltz and the Trump Administration’s strategically inconsequential campaign against the Houthis in Yemen, Murphy said: “You were very involved in the offensive operations in Yemen. As you saw in this last week, the Houthis have restarted attacks on the shipping lanes. Two very devastating attacks. Throughout the last two months, they have been continuing to take offensive operations against Israel. It doesn’t look like we did much to really fundamentally change the battle space there. They still have pretty robust offensive capabilities to target shipping lanes and to target our friends. We spent, it looks like, around $1 billion, depleted a lot of our ammunition stocks. How do you look at that operation in retrospect knowing that, as we sit here today, the Houthis have once again begun attacks in the Red Sea?”

A full transcript of Murphy’s exchanges with Waltz is available below. 

MURPHY: “Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for being here.

“Mr. Waltz, the U.N. doesn’t have a conventional army. It’s got peacekeepers, but there’s no aircraft carriers, there’s no air force. This is a place where smart power matters, right? This is a place where we invest in things like diplomacy and humanitarian aid and economic development to try to stabilize the world. 

“I think what worries me about your fit for this position is that while you were at the National Security Council, you oversaw the dismantling of many of our most important smart power tools in the U.S. foreign policy toolkit. A lot of conversations happened on this committee about what has happened to USAID, our ability to influence the world through economic development and humanitarian assistance. But not as much conversation has happened about the attempted destruction – I think, led by an NSC process – of our information and media operations around the world. 

“This administration, while you were at the NSC, essentially shut down USAGM, which is the umbrella agency for our global media operations, fired 92% of the staff, announced plans to shut down Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. They’re only open today because of court orders. The administration does not support the Global Engagement Center, which is also now shut down, which was the State Department's ability to try to work with partners around the world to counter Chinese propaganda and Russian propaganda. I mean, listen, we were already having circles run around us by Russia and by China predominantly even before the administration went forward with this essential destruction of our existing information and counter-propaganda capacity. 

“So maybe just share with me: while you were National Security Adviser, why did you believe that it advanced U.S. national security interests to shut down our most important agencies that try to win the information war, which is a war that whether we like it or not, exists in this world, and we’re not fighting it today, while our adversaries are?”

WALTZ: “Thank you for the question. And I think we’re in violent agreement that we have to win the information war. We may have a disagreement on the best way to do that. What we did not see were the metrics, were the actual results. As you mentioned, we’re getting, in many ways, outpaced in the information space. Yet for decades we've had these entities that have become expensive and have become quite bloated. I think the best way to block and tackle our adversaries abroad is through our amazing private sector, through innovation, through what we’re seeing in our leadership role in AI and in other spaces. And so as the president, as the secretary looked across the interagency and those entities, they made those decisions.”

MURPHY: “But the private sector isn’t going to fight Russian and Chinese propaganda around the world, right? I mean, that has to be an essential function of U.S. national security policy, correct?”

WALTZ: “Well, what they are going to do is show the power of free markets, the power of entrepreneurship, and show, really, the power of the U.S. in terms of a free society and with our values.”

MURPHY: “We’re going to rely on Disney?”

WALTZ: “I think we’re actually more aligned than what you think. What we were looking at is the actual effectiveness. It’s the tool that we questioned, and then the president and secretary made a decision to reallocate resources.”

MURPHY: “Listen, I hope the administration does rethink this. If they’ve got a better idea on how to try to project power in the information space, then I think we’re all willing to hear it. But right now, we’re taking ourselves off the playing field. 

“You were very involved in the offensive operations in Yemen. As you saw in this last week, the Houthis have restarted attacks on the shipping lanes. Two very devastating attacks. Throughout the last two months, they have been continuing to take offensive operations against Israel. It doesn’t look like we did much to really fundamentally change the battle space there. They still have pretty robust offensive capabilities to target shipping lanes and to target our friends. We spent, it looks like, around $1 billion, depleted a lot of our ammunition stocks. How do you look at that operation in retrospect knowing that, as we sit here today, the Houthis have once again begun attacks in the Red Sea?”

WALTZ: “Well, thank you, senator, for the question. I think we also have to look at it in the context of, from the figures that I’ve seen, a 20% to 30% increase in shipping through the Red Sea, an increase in revenues through the Suez Canal. And what we do not have are our warships being used as target practice by the Houthis, which is what, frankly, we had in the last administration. Now, do we need to work to make sure that’s enduring? Perhaps the Houthi leadership hasn’t fully gotten the message. But I would defer to Secretary Rubio, Secretary Hegseth and the president on the way forward there.”

MURPHY: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”