(NewsNation) — Top officials from the Trump administration faced criticism — and calls to resign — after a journalist gained access to a group chat featuring plans for an attack against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz should step down.
“When the stakes are this high, incompetence is not an option,” Warner said on social media before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on global threats Tuesday.
In his opening remarks during Tuesday’s hearing, Warner said Hegseth and Waltz did not “conduct hygiene 101.”
Not realizing that Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, had gained access to the chat was “sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior,” Warner said.
“If this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired,” Warner said.
Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff asked Ratcliffe during the hearing: “This was a huge mistake, correct?” to which Ratcliffe answered “No.”
“This is an embarrassment,” Ossoff said. “This is utterly unprofessional, there’s been no apology, there has been no recognition of the gravity of this error.”
At the hearing, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard would not say if she was part of the chat, which was hosted on the messaging app Signal, but maintained that “no classified” information was discussed. The incident is under review by the National Security Council, Gabbard said.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who said he was included in the chat, said the “use of Signal is permissible.”
Asked by Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., about whether the chat included a conversation about weapons packages or timings, Ratcliffe answered, “Not that I’m aware of.”
“You need to do better. You need to do better,” Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said, addressing Ratcliffe.
Lawmakers want to look into Signal chat
Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday there’s going to be an investigation into the officials who carried out the discussions over Signal, NewsNation partner The Hill wrote.
Risch said he spoke to Secretary of State Marco Rubio “at length,” according to The Hill.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, said they are “getting to the bottom of what that whole text chain entailed.”
“I think obviously, people are asking questions and they deserve answers, but I think that the United States right now is the recognized world leader,” Thune told reporters.
In an article he wrote for the Atlantic, Goldberg said the plans discussed over Signal “included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.”
On “The Bulwark” podcast, Goldberg said right now he is not planning on publishing more of the texts, but might do so in the future.
“Just because they’re irresponsible with material doesn’t mean that I’m going to be irresponsible with this material,” he said.
Trump ‘continues to have confidence’ in Waltz
Taking questions from the press after an ambassador’s meeting at The White House, Waltz said he’s never met or communicated with Goldberg, and officials are looking into how he got added into the chat. Ratcliffe, he said, was using a government phone during the Signal discussion.
Regarding the attacks on the Houthis, “we had a very successful evening” on Sunday, Waltz said.
“I don’t think (Waltz) needs to apologize. I think he is doing his best,” Trump said to reporters Tuesday afternoon, adding that he doesn’t want the national security adviser to be hurt by this. He called The Atlantic a “failing magazine.”
He refused to answer a question about why the White House is saying the information on the signal chat was not classified.
“Next question,” Trump told reporters.
Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that “the president continues to have confidence in his national security team, including Mike Waltz.”
Hegseth maintained Monday that “nobody was texting war plans” and called Goldberg “a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again,” The Hill reported. White House director of communications Steven Cheung said on X that “the Atlantic story is nothing more than a section of the NatSec establishment community running the same, tired gameplay from years past.”
NewsNation partner The Hill contributed to this report.
This story is developing. Refresh for updates.