Trump defends national security adviser after Signal chat with journalist

Donald Trump defends Mike Waltz for sharing a chat over war plans with a journalist as Democrats denounced the security breach as reckless and dangerous.

The White House and two top intelligence officials denied on Tuesday that classified materials about military strikes in Yemen were shared by officials on a group chat on a nongovernment service, while Democrats denounced the security breach as reckless and dangerous.

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and John Ratcliffe, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told Congress Tuesday that the chat among senior officials over a pending military strike against Houthi militants earlier this month didn’t include classified information. The Atlantic reported that the chat included details of an imminent operation against the Houthis.

Gabbard and Ratcliffe’s claim, which was made in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, was challenged by several senators who said it wasn’t plausible that the chat could be unclassified.

“If that is the case, please release the whole text stream,” said Sen. Angus King, a political independent from Maine, echoing many of the concerns of his Democratic colleagues.

“If this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behaviour, they would be fired,” said Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who serves as the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “This is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behaviour, particularly toward classified information.” Kash Patel, the Federal Bureau of Investigation director, declined to say if his agency would investigate whether the Signal chat violated security procedures, adding that he was briefed on the app discussion on Monday night and had no updates to provide.

The disclosure that top administration officials had conducted several days of discussion about the military operation over Signal, which was revealed in The Atlantic’s report, has also put a spotlight on national security adviser Mike Waltz, who organised the group thread about U.S. plans to launch air strikes against Yemen’s Houthi militants and included the magazine’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.

The incident has prompted widespread concern in Washington about the administration’s procedures for protecting sensitive defence information at the same time the Trump administration has said it wants to clamp down on leaks.

Earlier, President Trump expressed support for Waltz, who had privately come under criticism from some administration officials in the aftermath of the incident. “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump told NBC News.

The president called the episode “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”

US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. Picture: AFP

The White House’s defence didn’t satisfy Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who engaged in a contentious exchange with the intelligence chiefs that lasted several hours.

Gabbard initially declined to acknowledge that she had participated in the Signal chat, saying that the National Security Council was conducting a review of the episode. She later acknowledged that she was travelling abroad during the period in which the chat occurred but declined to say whether she participated using her personal or government phone, saying that would be part of the NSC assessment.

Ratcliffe confirmed that he had participated but then said he didn’t remember any discussion of “weapon packages” or other operational details that the Atlantic reported had been mentioned.

As the hearing continued, Ratcliffe provided a more complicated view of his claim that no classified information was conveyed in the chat. The CIA director said that nothing that he or his agency had shared had been classified, adding that there was no reason that the name of a CIA official who had been part of the chat group should be withheld, as the Atlantic did when it reported on the Signal discussion.

As for information shared by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Ratcliffe said that shouldn’t be considered to be secret because Hegseth has the authority to determine whether Defense Department information is classified and has insisted it wasn’t.

That raised the question of whether and when Hegseth had formally declassified the Pentagon information on the pending military operation.

“What you are saying doesn’t make sense on the face of it,” said Warner, who was particularly assertive in pressing the officials. Warner said the committee would seek access to the texts so it could make its own determination.

There were early signs Tuesday that many Republicans would go along with the White House’s defiant message. A White House rapid response account circulated a clip of Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) appearing on Fox News and commending the Trump administration for focusing on worldwide threats, while asserting that the Biden administration had failed to do so.

His comments came as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X that officials in the thread didn’t discuss “war plans.” She also said the White House Counsel’s Office “has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible.”

The discussion over the encrypted Signal app lasted days and included specific information about weapons, targets and timing used in the attack, Goldberg reported. That information was discussed prior to the attack on the Houthis. Leavitt also said the National Security Council is looking into how Goldberg was added to the group thread.

Goldberg, who withheld operational details in his published report, said in a statement: “The information I received on this Signal chat included the full name of an active CIA officer; human targeting information that could affect an adversary’s understanding of US intelligence sources and methods; the sequencing of upcoming attacks; the weapons used in forthcoming attacks; the exact times attacks were supposed to start (information I received before attacks were launched); and real-time damage assessments that, again, could compromise sources and methods.”

The statement continued: “Any responsible national security expert would consider the information contained in this Signal chat to be of the greatest sensitivity, and would agree that this information should never be shared on non-government messaging apps.”

Former government officials have said the use of Signal for conducting discussions about military plans was a serious breach of security procedure, which require that classified information be conveyed on secure government systems.

Sen. Mark Warner, the Virginia Democrat who serves as the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the information in the chat was “likely classified” and that less prominent officials would be likely be fired for such a transgression. He spoke at the start of a hearing Tuesday at which Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and other top intelligence officials were testifying on global threats.

Sen. Mark Warner, pictured during a senate committee on intelligence hearing on Tuesday, said the chat was likely classified. Picture: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/AFP

There were early signs Tuesday of Republicans coalescing around a defiant message. A White House rapid response account circulated a clip of Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) appearing on Fox News and commending the Trump administration for focusing on worldwide threats, while asserting that the Biden administration had failed to do so.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was among 18 users in the Signal group, on Monday criticised Goldberg and said that “nobody was texting war plans and that’s all I have to say about that.”

In an interview with CNN, Goldberg pushed back on Hegseth’s comments. “That’s a lie,” he said. “He was texting war plans, he was texting attack plans.”

FBI director Kash Patel, National Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard, and CIA director John Ratcliffe, during Tuesday’s hearing Picture: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/AFP

The Signal chat group that discussed the planned strikes against the Houthis also listed as members Vice President JD Vance, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, special envoy Steve Witkoff and a user identified as “MAR,” which appeared to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The messages also revealed that Vance was sceptical of the need to strike the Houthis. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” he said. While he would support the consensus of the top officials in the chat, Vance said, “I just hate bailing Europe out again.”

Two hours before the strikes, Hegseth sent the group sensitive information about the strike plan, including “weapons packages, targets, and timing,” the magazine said.

“I will say a prayer for victory,” Vance wrote in one text. Two other administration officials responded with prayer emojis, the article said.

The Wall Street Journal