Schumer, top Democrats on war plans group chat: 'Astonishingly poor judgment'
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and the Democratic leaders of several national security-related Senate committees sent a letter to President Trump expressing “extreme alarm about the astonishingly poor judgment” shown by Cabinet officials who discussed war planning on a group chat with a journalist.
“Let us be clear, if any American military servicemember, intelligence official, or law enforcement officer committed such an egregious breach of operational security and endangered the lives of their comrades downrange, they would be investigated and likely prosecuted,” Schumer and the other senior Democrats wrote.
Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee; Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee; and Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, also signed the letter.
They wrote the chat contained “sensitive conversations between the vice president and Cabinet officials that could have a negative impact on our diplomatic efforts with foreign allies and partners, particularly in Europe.”
And they noted that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who was on the chat, and possibly other officials appeared to be overseas during the group chat, to which national security adviser Mike Waltz inadvertently added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.
Schumer and his Democratic colleagues said Gabbard’s location overseas made “the entire conversation vulnerable to interception by foreign adversaries.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly discussed detailed information about planned military strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen on the group chat, which was hosted on Signal, a commercial app.
Hegseth later denied the allegation, telling reporters: “Nobody was texting war plans.”
Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe during testimony before the Intelligence Committee Tuesday insisted that no classified information was discussed on the group chat.
The Senate Democrats, however, aren’t buying that claim and asked Trump to authorize Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the matter.
“Our committees have serious questions about this incident, and members need a full accounting to ensure it never happens again,” they wrote.
They asked Trump to direct his Cabinet officials to preserve their records of the communications and any other discussions of government business that occurred on Signal.
“Some of the messages in the Signal chat were apparently set to disappear after a certain period of time — a potential violation of both the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act,” the Democrats wrote.
They have asked the president to provide a complete and unredacted transcript of the group chat, which also included Vice President Vance and special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.
They also asked for a complete list of all personnel who participated or had access to the group chat and whether any individuals transferred classified information, including operational war plans, from a classified to an unclassified system.
“We expect your administration to address this dangerous lapse in security protocol — whether intended or not — with the utmost seriousness, and to uphold the ethic of accountability that our nation holds sacred,” they wrote.
Warner told reporters Tuesday that if it's true that senior Trump officials did not discuss classified information on the group chat, they should then disclose all the content of the chat.
“I expect that we’re going to get answers on this. We don’t have answers,” he said.
The Atlantic on Wednesday published additional details from the Signal chat.
It reported that Hegseth provided a detailed timeline of when F-18 attack fighters were scheduled to launch and when strike drones were scheduled to first hit their targets.