Signalgate tensions remain high for some lawmakers
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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks during a March 26 House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill. Photo: Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images
There is at least some cross-aisle consensus on the Trump administration's Signal leak that dominated headlines last week: Democrats and at least a couple Republicans agree it warrants further investigation, but they break on what the consequences should be.
The big picture: The fiasco in which national security adviser Mike Waltz inadvertently included a reporter in a chat discussing details of a strike on Houthi rebels sparked concerns over the way the administration shared details of a sensitive military operation, even from party allies on the Hill.
- The Trump administration has remained defiant in its defense that no classified information was leaked in what's been dubbed "Signalgate."
- But even a majority of Republicans agree that the mixup was a somewhat or very serious problem, according to polling in the wake of The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg's explosive report.
- Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) on Thursday asked the Pentagon's inspector general to investigate how Goldberg ended up in the chat.
Driving the news: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that an inspector general investigation into the incident would be "entirely appropriate."
- "There's two questions," Lankford said. "One is, how did a reporter get in this conversation? And the second one is, how do members of the administration talk to each other when they're on the road on things that are clearly timely?"
- But Lankford said calls for Defense Secretary Pete Hesgseth to resign are "way overkill."
Rep. Mike Turner (R-La.), the former House Intelligence Committee chair, echoed that sentiment, saying Hegseth and Waltz are "doing an excellent job," but raised questions over whether Signal should be used for sensitive conversations.
- The platform "can be compromised," he said on ABC's "This Week," noting he doesn't use Signal because of "an assumption of privacy that it just does not provide."
- Turner said the subject of ongoing military operations "should be" considered classified information and that finding it "in an unclassified manner" was "surprising."
- Yet he argued intelligence officials included in the discussion "certainly have the ability to declassify the information."
Zoom out: Three-quarters of Americans agree that the Signal matter was at least a somewhat serious problem, according to CBS News/YouGov polling out Sunday.
- And 76% said using the app to discuss military plans was not appropriate — including 56% of Republicans.
The other side: Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, joined the choir of Democrats seeking accountability and called Sunday for both Hegseth and Waltz to resign or be fired.
- "If no action is taken, what message does that send to the workforce?" he questioned on CBS News' "Face the Nation," adding, "if you're a military officer or a CIA agent, and you treated classified information this way, you would be fired, end of story."
- Warner cautioned that handling sensitive details "sloppily" could prompt allies to withhold information from the U.S., referencing CBS reporting that Israeli officials were enraged that the leaked discussion featured intelligence Israel provided to the U.S. from a source in Yemen.
- "The fact is, countries don't have to share their intel with us," Warner said in a separate "Fox News Sunday" interview. "We lose that, if it's America alone, then we are ... made less safe."
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said during a Sunday interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe "lied repeatedly" during their testimony before the Intelligence Committee.
- Bennet later added, "I think these people should go. We need ... the top members of our intelligence community to be nonpartisan. We need them to tell the truth to the American people."
Go deeper: How Trump's team could've planned the Houthi strikes without Signal
