Senate Democrats gave Donald Trump appointees a tongue lashing Tuesday as they attempted to dodge questions over the administration’s Signal group chat gaffe.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard initially refused to confirm she was even in the leaked chat involving The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg and squirmed in her seat when pressed on whether she used Signal on her phone while abroad or not.
John Ratcliffe, the director of the CIA, immediately conceded he was in the infamous chat but said the inclusion of Goldberg was not a “huge mistake” by administration officials.
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Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence were, predictably, not satisfied by those answers.
“This sloppiness, this incompetence, this disrespect for our intelligence agencies and the personnel who work for them is entirely unacceptable,” Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet told the duo. “It’s an embarrassment. You need to do better.”
Ratcliffe and Gabbard claimed the group chat, which centered around a U.S. strike on Houthi rebel targets in Yemen this month, contained no classified information.
This left Sen. Mark Warner baffled. The Atlantic reported the chat included discussions on whether to strike or not, as well as “operational details” such as what targets to hit and the name of a CIA officer. This, Warner said, sounded like details that would typically be considered classified—in part because “if this information had gotten out, American lives could have been lost.”
“If it’s not classified, share the texts now,” Warner added.
The Atlantic included some screenshots from the chat, but left out details discussing the intricate plan of the strike itself. Both Gabbard and Ratcliffe said under oath there were no classified details in the thread, suggesting the Trump administration should have no issue with releasing the texts in full.
“My communications, to be clear, in a Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information,” Ratcliffe said.
Gabbard added: “There was no classified material that was shared in that Signal chat.”
“So then, if there was no classified material, share it with the committee,” Warner shot back. “You can’t have it both ways. These are important jobs. This is our national security. Bobbing and weaving and trying to filibuster your answer.”
Sen. Jon Ossoff took things a step further. After Ratcliffe again downplayed the situation, the Democrat from Georgia threatened him with an investigation if it turns out he lied about the chat being completely free of classified material.
“A national political reporter was made privy to sensitive information about the Yemen military information against a foreign terrorist organization, and that wasn’t a huge mistake?” Ossoff began. “This is an embarrassment. This is utterly unprofessional. There’s been no apology. There has been no recognition of the gravity of this error...”
“And by the way—we will get the full transcript of this chain, and your testimony will be measured carefully against its content.”
Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly was able to get Ratcliffe to admit that discussions of possible military targets should not take place on an unclassified system like Signal.
“Pre-decisional strike deliberation should be conducted through classified channels,” Ratcliffe said.
Kelly asked Gabbard it there was mention of Houthi targets in the group chat, trying to get her to contradict her statement there was no classified material. After a long pause, Gabbard said she did not remember any “specific” targets, but admitted there was a general discussion of military targets.
Sen. Jack Reed struggled to get even simple answers out of Gabbard. He asked the DNI director if she had used Signal while abroad, but Gabbard deflected.
“I won’t speak to this because it’s under review by the National Security Council,” she said.
Reed scoffed at her answer, saying, “What is under review? It’s a very simple question, were you using a private phone or officially issued phone? What could be under review?”
Gabbard again refused to answer outright, saying, “The National Security Council is reviewing all aspects of how this came to be, how the journalist was inadvertently added to the group chat and what occurred within that chat across the board.”
The grilling was not limited to just the Trump officials in the hearing. Warner also lambasted the president’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, for failing to conduct “security hygiene 101” when he mistakenly added Goldberg to the group chat and never noticed he was there. Warner suggested such a mistake should warrant a firing or resignation—though there have been no signs of either happening for Waltz, a former Republican congressman from Florida.
“Putting aside for a moment that classified information should never be discussed over an unclassified system, it’s also just mind boggling to me that all these senior folks were on this line and nobody bothered to even check,” Warner said. “Security hygiene 101—who are all the names? Who are they?”
Warner added: “If this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired. This is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information, that this is not a one-off or a first-time error.”
FBI Director Kash Patel was also at Tuesday’s hearing, but, having not been named as a part of the chat, he avoided the brunt of criticism. Patel said he was not briefed on the scandal until Monday night and had not had enough time to determine if the debacle should be probed by his agents or not.
