Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John Curtis (R-UT) appeared last night on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper to discuss the Trump Administration’s decision to sell military equipment to Ukraine, as well as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s confirmation hearing for Michael Waltz as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
The full transcript of the interview can be found below, and video can be found here.
Jake Tapper: And Republican Senator from Utah. John Curtis joins us now. He is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator, thanks so much for joining us. Good to see you.
Senator Curtis: Always great.
Tapper: So last week, President Trump confirmed he was going to restart the weapons shipments to Ukraine, despite Secretary of Defense Hegseth apparently having paused the shipments without telling the white House. First, you say you agree with the President’s decision to restart, “but I hope the administration will brief Congress on why these shipments were paused in the first place.” Have you gotten an answer to that? Do you think I Hegseth should testify?
Curtis: Well, I think any time there’s a question like this, the American people and Congress want answers. I haven’t had a satisfactory answer. I think we’re all pleased. Well, let me just say, the people I associate with are pleased that the weapons are going over there. And I think even more important, it’s tied to a specific strategy. Let’s get a ceasefire in 50 days. And I think one of the mistakes we’ve made in Ukraine in the past is we haven’t been strategic about what we’re sending over and what we’re actually trying to achieve.
Tapper: Do you want Hegseth to testify?
Curtis: Oh, absolutely. Any time there’s a lack of information, like I said, it’s not just Congress, I think the American people long for that and want answers. Of course.
Tapper: So, in a story first reported by the Financial Times, President Trump apparently, asked about Ukraine’s ability to reach, to strike, major Russian cities such as Moscow or Saint Petersburg. And there were even follow up discussions about what long range U.S. weapons could be used for such a thing. The White House is insisting that Trump’s words are being taken out of context. And this afternoon, President Trump reiterated Ukraine should not target Moscow. But what do you make of it all? And should striking Moscow be completely off the table?
Curtis: Well, if you go back to the beginning of this war and our involvement, I think one of the mistakes we’ve made is taking things off the table. All of us would like to fight an enemy that has restrictions, particularly dramatic restrictions. You remember a couple of years ago, we wouldn’t let any offensive weapons go over there. Well, how is Ukraine going to really fight that war? So it’s hard for me to say what we should do or what we shouldn’t do, but simply from a strategic advantage, we should be talking about what we’re not going to allow them to do publicly.
Tapper: You had a chance to speak with Mike Waltz a few days before the confirmation hearing before the Foreign Relations Committee, earlier today. Did you get the chance to ask him about any lessons he learned from the Signal Gate experience when he accidentally added Jeff Goldberg from the Atlantic to this chat on Signal, where he and the Vice President and Pete Hegseth and others were talking about very sensitive, if not classified, information?
Curtis: So, I didn’t ask him that specific question, but the topic obviously came up. I think it’s important to me, and I’ll come back to this, it’s important to Congress and the American people that when things like this happen, that we have answers. The more transparency, the better. I think there’s a lot of legitimate questions about just in government in whole, not just this administration, but overall, is this something that has been going on.
Tapper: The signal chat?
Curtis: The signal chat. Right. Is it appropriate if we have boundaries around what type of information? And then at what point do you cross the line? I don’t think that we have answers to that. And I think that this was an opportunity for us to better understand that tool, how it’s used appropriately and when it’s not used appropriately.
Tapper: Here’s an exchange between Mike Waltz and your Democratic colleague Chris Coons of Delaware earlier today.
Michael Waltz: Recommends end-to-end encryption messaging, on both government and personal devices.
Senator Coons: For sensitive military operational information?
Waltz: Of course, Senator, there was no classified information exchanged.
Coons: For sensitive military operations? This, you were sharing details about an upcoming airstrike. Was any disciplinary action taken?
Waltz: From the White House Investigation, Senator?
Coons: Yes.
Waltz: No. The use of Signal was, and, not only authorized, it’s still authorized and highly recommended.
Tapper: Did that satisfy you? That answer?
Curtis: Well, as I understand it, there is a DoD investigation, and that’s what will satisfy me when I get answers to that. I don’t have the experience to know when that line was crossed. Obviously, there was a lot of information shared there that didn’t sound appropriate. And I would like to know that as well as I think my colleagues and the American people would like to know that as well.
Tapper: I guess this is more of a comment than a question, but I am wondering what you think. Like, obviously he messed up. He accidentally added a journalist to a Signal chat, and obviously there are questions about whether Signal should be used for such sensitive conversations. People make mistakes. We’re all fallible. I don’t understand this huge reluctance to admit that a mistake has been made when especially it doesn’t appear as though there were any serious repercussions.
Curtis: So, I served with, Mike Waltz in the House for a number of years. I think I know him well, and think I know his character well, and I don’t, to me, this is not a character issue. I think there’s an issue of not throwing my colleagues under the bus. Also, an issue of, look, as long as this DoD investigation is going on, let’s wait and let’s get to the end of that and see what we have.
Tapper: Yeah, that’s fair enough. I didn’t even mean it applying to him. I meant to the administration, writ large. That just does seem to be a refusal to ever admit when a mistake has been made. Senator, Curtis, John Curtis from Utah, Republican. Thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it.
Curtis: Let’s do it again.