President Trump defended his national security team as an 'amazing group' after a journalist from The Atlantic revealed he was inadvertently added to a Signal chat about military plans for strikes in Yemen.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard over a group chat about military plans to which a veteran journalist was Trump said he is standing by national security adviser Mike Waltz, whose team Trump said was responsible for adding The Atlantic magazine's editor-in-chief to the chat.
He later told reporters in the Oval Office thatNational security adviser Mike Waltz said in a Fox News interview tonight that he takes"full responsibility" for organizing a text group on the messaging app Signal that accidentally leaked plans for "I take full responsibility. I built the — I built the group," Waltz told host Laura Ingraham in his first public comments since the story broke yesterday."My job is to make sure everything's coordinated." Walts was response to a question about whether a staffer was responsible for adding The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to the group.Waltz also suggested, without evidence, that Goldberg might have"deliberately" appeared in the group, which included top administration officials. "Now, whether he did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical means is something we're trying to figure out," Waltz said, adding that he had spoken with Elon Musk today and that"we've got the best technical minds looking at how this happened.""Attempts to disparage and discredit The Atlantic, our editor, and our reporting follow an obvious playbook by elected officials and others in power who are hostile to journalists and the First Amendment rights of all Americans. Our journalists are continuing to fearlessly and independently report the truth in the public interest," Anna Bross, a spokesperson for the publication, said in a statement today.Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is clashing with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., over her push to pass legislation that would allow lawmakers who are new parents to vote remotely. In a closed-door meeting today, Johnson discouraged rank-and-file Republicans from supporting Luna’s proxy voting bill, warning that it was unconstitutional, a source in the meeting said. “We want to make it as easy as possible for young parents to be able to participate in the process,” Johnson told reporters after the meeting. “But proxy voting, in my view, is unconstitutional.”Gary Grumbach is a NBC News Legal Affairs Reporter, based in Washington, D.C. Government watchdog group American Oversight sued Trump administration officials involved in a group chat discussion of military plans that mistakenly included a journalist. “Messages in the Signal chat about official government actions, including, but not limited to, national security deliberations, are federal records and must be preserved in accordance with federal statutes, and agency directives, rules, and regulations,” the lawsuit says. “Defendants’ use of Signal presents a substantial risk that they have used and continue to use Signal in other contexts, thereby creating records that are subject to the and/or the , but are not being preserved as required by those statutes,” it adds. American Oversight also noted that under State Department and Treasury Department recordkeeping rules, “officials do not forward Signal messages, including messages from the Signal chat, to their official email accounts, thereby barring American Oversight and other FOIA requesters from obtaining responsive records to which they are otherwise entitled under FOIA, particularly if such Signal messages are set to auto-delete.”The lawsuit asks the judge to declare, among other things, that messages and communications sent via Signal in conducting official business are records subject to the Federal Records Act.The order directs that employees of the firm Jenner & Block be stripped of security clearances and have their access to federal buildings limited and that federal agencies terminate any contracts with the firm. The order repeatedly singles out Weissmann, an NBC News & MSNBC legal analyst."Andrew Weissmann is the main culprit with respect to this," Trump said as he signed the order in the White House."He's a bad guy."“Today, we have been named in an Executive Order similar to one which has already been declared unconstitutional by a federal court," a spokesperson for the firm said in a statement."We remain focused on serving and safeguarding our clients’ interests with the dedication, integrity, and expertise that has defined our firm for more than one hundred years and will pursue all appropriate remedies.”involving the powerful firm Paul Weiss last week after it agreed to perform $40 million in free legal work for causes Trump supports and, according toHouse Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., urged Trump in a short letter today to"immediately" fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, citing the military plans that were inadvertently shared with a journalist in a group text. "Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in American history. His continued presence in the top position of leadership at the Pentagon threatens the nation’s security and puts our brave men and women in uniform throughout the world in danger," Jeffries wrote.Dareh Gregorian The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that a lower court's preliminary injunction on refugee admissions will remain in effect, but only for refugees who were conditionally approved as of Jan. 20, when Trump took office for his second term. The appeals court ruled that Trump’s executive order halting refugee admissions “does not purport to revoke the refugee status of individuals who received that status under the United States Refugee Admissions Program prior to January 20, 2025.” U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead last month blocked the Trump administration from suspending refugee processing, decisions and admissions across the board. The appeals court today issued a partial stay of the order while it considers the government's appeal. Whitehead issued a second preliminary injunction in the case yesterday, blocking the administration from terminating agreements with agencies that serve refugees and ordering the restoration of funding to those agencies. The administration announced today it's appealing that decision, as well.Senate Armed Services Committee members are weighing how they intend to get more information from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the information he shared on the Signal chat with Jeffrey Goldberg, with Democrats urging Republicans to call Hegseth to testify before the committee. “Well, I think it would be helpful, certainly,” Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the committee's ranking member, told NBC News today about whether he wants Hegseth to testify. “And also, it would reaffirm his assertions that there was nothing unusual or inappropriate about the conversation.”Wicker and Reed discussed having Hegseth testify before the committee before the worldwide threats hearing, and Wicker signaled openness, according to a Democratic source with knowledge of the discussions. But Wicker suggested he wants to get Hegseth on the phone or receive a copy of the full Signal chat. The Democratic source believes that could be an off-ramp to avoid having the spectacle of a hearing held by a Republican-controlled committee. Reed said getting a copy of the Signal chat was a priority for Democrats, saying, “There is no legitimate basis for him to withhold information from the committee that he claims is unclassified and has already been shared with a journalist.” Sens. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, both members of the Intelligence Committee, said they would like to see copies of the Signal chat.Trump is nominating Media Research Center founder L. Brent Bozell III to be the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, according to— who wrote a letter last year defending his son, at the time a convicted Jan. 6 rioter — to run the U.S. Agency for Global Media, but his nominationlast month halting U.S. aid to South Africa and promoting the resettlement of Afrikaners who, the order said, faced"government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation." Elon Musk, the de facto head of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, was born in South Africa and has repeatedlyVice President JD Vance announced on X this afternoon that he will join his wife, second lady Usha Vance, as part of a U.S. delegation to Greenland this week as Trump escalates calls for a U.S. takeover of the Danish territory. "You know, there was so much excitement around Usha's visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her," Vance said in a "I’m going to visit some of our guardians in the Space Force on the northwest coast of Greenland and also just check out what’s going on with the security there." Vance said the Trump administration believes leaders in the United States and Denmark have"ignored" the island, which is rich in coveted critical mineral resources and is along key North Atlantic shipping routes, for"far too long." "Speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it’s important to protecting the security of the entire world," he said. Outgoing Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte B. Egede has questioned the motives of the trip, arguing it could be a show of force by the Trump administration to intimidate local leaders.The Senate Finance Committee voted 14-13 to advance Dr. Mehmet Oz’s nomination to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.There could be an additional 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths globally in the next four years if U.S. funding cuts are not reversed, the United Nations warned. Almost all U.S. foreign aid has been put on hold since Trump returned to office on Jan. 20, though his administration says there is an exemption for the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, which is estimated to have prevented 25 million early AIDS-related deaths since President George W. Bush launched it in 2003. Still, the program has been affected by cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which could lead to a “real surge” in HIV/AIDS cases, said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of the U.N. AIDS agency.“This sudden withdrawal of U.S. funding has led of many clinics, laying off of thousands of health workers,” she told reporters in Geneva yesterday. The world will see the disease “come back, and we see people dying the way we saw them in the ’90s and in 2000s,” she added, saying that “we have not heard of other governments pledging to fill the gap.”A federal appeals court today temporarily halted a lower court's order that the U.S. Agency for International Development reopen its headquarters. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an administrative stay of U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang's order until Thursday, an indication it will decide in the next 48 hours on the administration's request for a stay while a full appeal is heard. The Baltimore judge found last week that the efforts of Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to largely dismantle USAID “likely The judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering the agency to reopen its headquarters and restore access to email, payment and other electronic systems for all USAID employees and contractors.Speaking from the White House in a lengthy back-and-forth with reporters, Trump downplayed the events and said the chat contained “no classified information, as I understand it.” “They were using an app, as I understand it, that a lot of people in government use, a lot of people in the media use,” he said. Trump said he didn’t want Waltz to be “hurt” by the breach and saw no need for him to apologize, even as the president said aides would “probably” not use Signal any longer. “If it was up to me, everybody would be sitting in a room together,” Trump said. “The room would have solid lead walls and a lead ceiling and a lead floor. But you know, life doesn’t always let you do that.”Waltz, who was in the room for a meeting of ambassadors, defended himself amid repeated questions about when Trump learned of the chat and how. Waltz said they planned to look into how Goldberg got added to the chat and whether Signal is secure enough to use for high-level discussions. “We are we have our technical experts looking at it,” he said. “We have our legal teams looking at it. And of course, we’re going to keep everything as secure as possible.”South Korea is hosting the governor of Alaska and other state representatives this week amid talk of a long-stalled $44 billion pipeline supported by Trump that would transport gas from Alaska to U.S. allies in Asia. The delegation led by Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, which is visiting today and tomorrow, also includes representatives from the Glenfarne Group, the lead developer of the project, and the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, according to the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea. The chamber said Dunleavy was scheduled to meet with South Korean Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun; Joseph Yun, the acting U.S. ambassador to South Korea; and acting President Han Duck-soo, who wasyesterday after the Constitutional Court overturned his impeachment amid continuing political turmoil in the country over impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s attempt in December to declare martial law.A federal judge in Washington, D.C., issued a temporary restraining order this afternoon against the U.S. Agency for Global Media and its acting CEO, Kari Lake, blocking the Trump administration from canceling funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “Congress has found that 'it is the policy of the United States to promote the right of freedom of opinion and expression' and that 'open communication of information and ideas among the peoples of the world contributes to international peace and stability,'” Judge Royce Lamberth wrote in his opinion. “The leadership of USAGM cannot, with one sentence of reasoning offering virtually no explanation, force RFE/RL to shut down—even if the President has told them to do so.” The line Lamberth appeared to be referring to is “The award no longer effectuates agency priorities,” a sentence by Lake included in a“The Court concludes, in keeping with Congress’s longstanding determination, that the continued operation of RFE/RL is in the public interest,” Lamberth wrote.Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, is coming under fire from Republicans for referring to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as “Governor Hot Wheels”“Y’all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there, come on now. And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot ass mess, honey," she said., have amplified and criticized the remarks. Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, is planning to introduce a resolution to censure Crockett over her remarks about Abbott, according to Weber’s office."I was thinking about the planes, trains, and automobiles he used to transfer migrants into communities led by Black mayors, deliberately stoking tension and fear among the most vulnerable,""Literally, the next line I said was that he was a “Hot A** Mess,” referencing his terrible policies. At no point did I mention or allude to his condition."Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that he “suspects” the Senate Armed Services Committee may hold hearings and have national security officials testify who were involved in the signal group chat discussing strikes on the Houthis. “I suspect the Armed Services Committee may want to have some folks testify and have some questions answered as well,” Thune said. “I think everybody has acknowledged, including the White House, that, yeah, mistakes were made, and what we want to do is make sure that something like that doesn’t happen again.”Trump has signed a pardon for Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's ex-business partner. Trump says Archer was targeted politically for cooperating with a probe into the Bidens and called him the “victim of a crime, as far as I’m concerned.”Trump’s nominee to lead the Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano, got an earful from Senate Democrats at his confirmation hearing Tuesday, in the wake ofDemocratic senators pressed Bisignano on whether he was involved in discussions about DOGE operations regarding onboarding personnel, which he denied. They grilled him on whether he agrees with Musk’s rhetorical attacks on the program, which he sidestepped. They asked him to reassure them that Trump is telling the truth when he says he doesn’t want to slash benefits for seniors, and that he’d protect the program if confirmed.say the government has yet to release some disaster relief money, and are asking a judge to force the Federal Emergency Management Agency to release the cash. "The parties remain at an impasse as to millions of dollars in obligated FEMA awards, which are and have remained frozen dating to as early as February 7," the coalition of states with Democratic attorneys general said in a "Plaintiff States will need to wind down important programmatic emergency services, including disaster relief to people and communities affected by the Maui wildfires, in short order if funding is not immediately unfrozen." The filing says 4,000 individual wildfire survivors could lose services soon if the funds aren't released, and that Oregon and Colorado are facing imminent major disruptions as well.The states said that as of two weeks ago, “at least 215 FEMA grants to at least nineteen plaintiff states remain frozen or otherwise rendered inaccessible.”earlier this month, the Justice Department contended the"vast majority" of the funding holds"relates to the manual review process that FEMA is utilizing," and that the agency is permitted to carry out such reviews.today with right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk that the reaction to the inadvertent leak of military plans to a magazine journalist has been"embellished," but added,"It's obviously not a great look." Johnson said the inclusion of Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, on a high-level Trump administration chat about plans for a military strike against Houthis in Yemen was"a mistake," adding,"a mistake that I'm sure is being corrected — has been corrected immediately." "It'll be up to the president to decide exactly what action to take," he said, adding that he believed the situation was being blown out of proportion by Democratic members of Congress.for her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state during the Obama administration, which drew tremendous GOP criticism during her 2016 run for president. The Wisconsin senatorat an annual conference this week in a sign of how Beijing seeks to offset trade pressures, rather than retaliate forcefully.Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe both downplayed the mishap during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing a day afterThe incident has raised questions about the Trump administration’s handling of classified information as well as its use of Signal and other electronic communications.had agreed to a ceasefire in the Black Sea and to implement a ban on attacks on energy facilities by the two neighbors, an apparent breakthrough after American negotiators held separate talks with both countries. Negotiators had agreed with both countries “to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea,” the White House said in two separate but similar statements.During morning testimony at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., repeatedly questioned Gabbard and Ratcliffe's denials that the military strike plans that were leaked in a Signal group chat were classified. “The idea somehow, ‘Well, none of this was classified but we can’t talk about it here,’ you can’t have it both ways,” Warner told the officials. Gabbard and Ratcliffe had repeatedly deflected questions at the hearing about Signal group chat they were both reportedly part of, arguing the subject should not be discussed in a public forum. But central to their arguments on the gravity of the leak, they also denied that any of the information in the group chat was classified for security reasons. “It strains my mind to think, it strains my mind, if the shoe had been on the other foot, what my colleagues would be saying about this,” Warner said, referring to Republican senators.During the 2016 election, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton drew immense Republican backlash for her use of a private email server for communications when she was secretary of state in the Obama administration. National security adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have both condemned the past mishandling of classified information by Democrats. "If it's not classified, again, we'd ask you to give it to the public today," Warner said."If you got it here it's not classified, stand by your position, or is this just one more example of a careless approach to how we keep our secrets in this administration?"During questioning, Ratcliffe and Gabbard both said that Hegseth was the “original classifying authority” on the chat. That was a reference to the fact that, according to The Atlantic, Hegseth was the governmental official who shared the targeting information that Democrats argue was classified. While initial questions after the Atlantic story broke focused on why Waltz set up the chat, Hegseth is likely to face further scrutiny about why he chose to share military targeting information on the chat.Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., asked Ratcliffe whether he remembered various details in The Atlantic's report on the Signal chat about the military plans to attack the Houthis in Yemen, including whether Vice President JD Vance initially disagreed with the strike plans, as the magazine had reported.That prompted Ossoff to remark that a national political journalist had been privy to sensitive information and"there has been no apology."Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., then chimed in, saying in his final remarks in the public portion of the hearing that putting the information out in the Signal chat could have allowed adversaries to reposition their defenses. "And the unwillingness of the individuals on this panel who were on the chat to even apologize for acknowledging what a colossal screw-up this is speaks volumes," Warner said.Questioned by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., at the hearing, Gabbard refused to say whether she was using her personal or work phone in the Signal text chain on planned strikes against Houthi forces in Yemen.Gabbard replied: “I won’t speak to this because it’s under review by the National Security Council. Once that review is complete, I’m sure we’ll share the results with the committee."Reed followed up: “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 declined to answer directly. “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,” she said.on global threats has adjourned. The committee will move to a closed session, where several lawmakers have said they will question Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe in more detail about the leak of sensitive military information to journalist Jeffrey Goldberg during a high-level group chat on the messaging app Signal.Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., posed the most pointed questions of the hearing so far, demanding that Ratcliffe answer whether Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, was in Moscow during the group chat. Russia is widely known for its ability to gain access to electronic devices and eavesdrop in sophisticated ways. “Did you know that the president’s Middle East adviser was in Moscow on this thread while you were, as director of the CIA, participating in this thread, were you aware of that? Are you? Are you aware of that today?”Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call via AP Bennet, shouting, said, “This sloppiness, this incompetence, this disrespect for our intelligence agencies and the personnel who work for him is entirely unacceptable. It’s an embarrassment." He added, “You need to do better. You need to do better.”Gabbard acknowledged under questioning from Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., that the administration officials in the Signal chat discussed targets, although she had previously declined to say whether she was in the group chat. "I believe there was discussion around targets in general," Gabbard testified after saying moments earlier that she did not"remember mention of specific targets." "I think that's consistent with my recollection," Ratcliffe added when being asked the same question. In answer to a string of questions from Kelly on whether those on the chat discussed the timing of airstrikes, weapons systems or military units, Gabbard and Ratcliffe repeatedly answered that they did not recall.Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, drilled down in his questioning on Russia's threats to Ukraine and Europe's response. Cornyn said the annual threat assessment says"Russia views its ongoing war with Ukraine as a proxy conflict with the West, and its objective to restore Russian strength and security," adding that Russia's perceptions on"U.S. and Western encroachment has increased the risks of unintended escalation between Russia and NATO. Do you agree with that statement?"Cornyn suggested that the perceptions of U.S. leadership receding on security matters in Europe could lead to nuclear proliferation."I know the incoming chancellor of Germany has talked about the possibility that Germany might share its nuclear weapons with Ukraine, and suggested that the U.K. would be part of that," Cornyn said."I know that Poland has talked about acquiring nuclear weapons and perhaps other European countries to make up for what they view as a receding of the American umbrella of protection."Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, asked Gabbard why global climate change was not included in this year's worldwide threats report, despite it being included in prior reports. "Every single one of these reports that we have had has mentioned global climate change as a significant national security threat, except this one. Has something happened, has global climate change been solved?" King asked, noting that the effects of climate change include famine, mass migration and political conflicts. "This annual threat assessment has been focused very directly on the threats that we deem most critical to the United States and our national security," Gabbard said."Obviously, we're aware of occurrences within the environment and how they may impact operations, but we're focused on the direct threats to Americans' safety, well-being and security." In answer to his question of who was responsible for leaving the subject out of the assessment, Gabbard said she did not recall instructing her team to not include climate change in it.In response to questions from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Gabbard and Ratcliffe said they would be open to audits of their communications after they said that they haven't participated in classified discussions on Signal. "To be clear, I haven't participated in any Signal group messaging that relates to any classified information at all," Ratcliffe said. "Senator, I have the same answer," Gabbard said."I have not participated in any Signal group chat, or any other chat on another app that contained any classified information."Republican Sen. James Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio “at length” about how a reporter was inadvertently added to a Signal group chat in which the nation’s top intelligence officials, Rubio reportedly included, shared classified plans for military action. “He is really aware of these kinds of things. We have leakage that happens from time to time,” Risch, of Idaho, said of Rubio, a former member of the committee, during his opening statement at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing this morning."I can assure you that his knowledge is such and his commitment is such that he had no knowledge of there being the tap on that, that there was when he was communicating.” The committee's top Democrat, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, of New Hampshire, expressed concern over the information leak and that no State Department personnel were aware of The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg’s accidental inclusion in the Signal group chat, or of the information that was leaked to him as a result. Risch called the incident a “serious leak,” and said, “I don’t think there’s anybody that wouldn’t be concerned. … We’ll move on as best we can.”Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said the addition of Goldberg to the White House officials' Signal chat was “incredibly sloppy” but added that “it was a mistake, and I am, I can say for certain, they’re going to put protocols in place so that doesn’t happen again.” Rep. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., said “people make mistakes” and to give Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “a pass.”No Republican senator has asked about it so far. Instead, Republican senators have focused their questions on migrants, cartels and China. Gabbard did not mention the call in her opening statement. When Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the committee, asked her about the call, she downplayed its importance, saying, “There was no classified material shared." Ratcliffe gave a similar answer. When Warner asked Gabbard if she planned to hand over the Signal exchange to the committee, she gave an unclear answer. When Warner asked FBI Director Kash Patel if he had launched an investigation into the call, he said he had only been briefed on it late last night.Ratcliffe defended the use of Signal to discuss military plans, saying it was loaded onto his computer shortly after he was confirmed as CIA director. Ratcliffe acknowledged that he was in the Signal group chat that was reported by The Atlantic, but said that he had been previously briefed about"the use of Signal as a permissible work use." He said he was informed that any decisions made needed to be recorded in “formal channels.” "It is permissible to use to communicate and coordinate for work purposes, provided, senator, that any decisions that are made are also recorded through formal channels. So those were procedures that were implemented," Ratcliffe said.Gabbard dodged a question from Warner about whether she was the user, reported as"TG," in the Signal chat with Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg in which senior Trump administration shared military plans. "Senator, I don't want to get into this," Gabbard said, who repeated the same response after Warner kept pressing her. Gabbard said that she didn't want to talk about the magazine's report because it's still under review. She later claimed in response to follow-up questions by Warner that, in the Signal chat, there was"no classified material that was shared."An anti-Israel protester interrupted the Senate hearing on worldwide threats, yelling,"Stop funding Israel" and the"greatest threat to global security" is Israel.The hearing resumed moments after, when the protesters left.In her opening statement, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard didn't address the Signal chat at the center of the story yesterday in which The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he was invited to the discussion with her and other senior Trump administration officials. Gabbard delivered her opening statement on behalf of the other witnesses, including FBI Director Kash Patel and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. She listed the number of threats facing the U.S., including those from"several nonstate actors, cartels, gangs and other transnational criminal organizations" in their"illicit activity, from narcotics trafficking to money laundering, to smuggling of illegal immigrants and human trafficking." From left, FBI Director Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe prepare to testify today.Gabbard said that Islamist extremists like ISIS and Al Qaeda continue to pursue and inspire attacks against the U.S. domestically and abroad. She said that China is the U.S.'s most “capable strategic competitor," and also said Russia has developed cyber capabilities that pose a threat to U.S. infrastructure. "Among Russia’s most concerning developments is a new satellite intended to carry a nuclear weapon as an anti-satellite weapon, violating long-standing international activity and putting the U.S. and global economy at risk," Gabbard said. Gabbard also said that the U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and that the country's supreme leader hasn't authorized the nuclear program.Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., began his opening remarks at the Senate hearing on worldwide threats by slamming the White House officials whom The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg reported as having been involved in a Signal group chat discussing military plans that inadvertently included him. Warner called the group chat mishap an example of"sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information." "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 even to check," Warner said, referring to Goldberg having been included in the discussion."Security hygiene 101: Who are all the names?"Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., did not address the Signal group chat that inadvertently included The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, on plans for strikes against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. Cotton, however, did applaud Trump’s “decisive action” against the Houthis this month — which was discussed in the Signal chat — and said he commends White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and others on the administration's national security team — some of whom the magazine reported were represented in the chat. Cotton also said in his opening statement that U.S. intelligence agencies are not fully capable of handling the threats facing the nation."We have to ask, are our intelligence agencies well-postured against these threats? I’m afraid the answer is no, at least not yet," he said."As the world became more dangerous in recent years, our intelligence agencies got more politicized, more bureaucratic, and more focused on promulgating opinions rather than gathering facts."He continued,"As a result of these misplaced priorities, we’ve been caught off guard and left in the dark too often. I know that all of you agree that the core mission of the intelligence community is to steal our adversaries' secrets and convey them to policymakers to protect the United States. At the same time, it’s not the role of intelligence agencies to make policy, to justify presidential action or to operate like other federal agencies. After years of drip, the intelligence community must recommit to its core mission of collecting clandestine intelligence from adversaries, whose main objective is to destroy our nation and our way of life."Asked about the White House's claim that no military plans were shared on the Signal chat with Jeffrey Goldberg, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said, “That’s baloney." "That's baloney," he said to reporters this morning as he left the weekly House Republican conference meeting."Just be honest and own up to it."Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., wrote in an op-ed this morning that U.S. intelligence community leaders owe Americans answers about the Trump administration's actions, including federal worker layoffs and cuts to U.S. aid, since the inauguration.He also asked how America is made more secure by firing people who oversee the nation's nuclear stockpile, monitor cyberattacks and prevent disease from spreading to the U.S., as the administration has done, although some who held those critical positions were rehired. "Can anyone tell me how firing probationary officers — without cause, and apparently without regard for merit, accomplishment, expense already incurred by the taxpayer in vetting and training, or the difficulty posed in filling the intelligence gaps left behind — makes us safer, or is an efficient use of taxpayer dollars?" he wrote. "The instability of the last two months also undermines a critical component of our intelligence gathering capabilities: the trust of allies," Warner said. He suggested that he wants answers to these questions during the worldwide threats hearing this morning before the Senate Intelligence Committee.“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said today in a phone interview with NBC News.Top Democrats on prominent House committees sent a letter to four White House officials whom The Atlantic identified as potentially being in the Signal chat, asking for answers about the information shared. "We are especially concerned that the reported deliberations may have constituted a security breach, because they relied upon an electronic messaging application that is not approved as a secure method for communicating classified information and because they inadvertently included at least one non-governmental party," read the letter, which was addressed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz. Separately, a group of 14 Senate Democrats sent a letter to Trump, calling the situation"an astonishingly cavalier approach to national security.""It does not take much imagination to consider the likely ramifications if this information had been made public prior to the strike — or worse, if it had been shared with or visible to an adversary rather than a reporter who seems to have a better grasp of how to handle classified information than your National Security Advisor," the senators wrote. The lawmakers asked that Trump and the officials share other instances in which officials may have discussed sensitive information using Signal and what steps the White House is taking to ensure this does not happen again. "In how many instances has the National Security Council held discussions on national security matters involving Principals Committee members or any other relevant executive branch officials using the Signal messaging service or any other messaging service application that has not been approved for the transmission of classified information?" read the letter from the top Democrats on the Armed Services, Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees., a report released today by the job listing website Indeed shows the number of workers looking for new jobs has spiked. Job applications from workers at agencies targeted by DOGE are up 75% compared with 2022, according to the report’s data. And while job applications among all workers increased after the Trump transition, the spike in applications from DOGE-targeted workers is especially pronounced. The Senate Finance Committee will hold a confirmation hearing today on Frank Bisignano’s nomination to be commissioner of the Social Security Administration.threats from the acting commissioner to shut down the agency after a federal judge barred the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing sensitive personal data.to Bisignano yesterday asking whether he supports privatizing Social Security, and whether he would be willing to undo recent changes made, such as the closure of dozens of Social Security offices, mass agency layoffs and new administrative requirements for beneficiaries.“These new developments leave us deeply concerned that DOGE and the Trump Administration are setting up the SSA for failure — a failure that could cut off Social Security benefits for millions of Americans — and that will then be used to justify a 'private sector fix.' Republicans have flirted with the idea of privatizing Social Security for over two decades,” the senators wrote in the letter. “The latest changes at the Social Security Administration leave us worried that Elon Musk — with his clear disdain for the program that provides financial security to millions of Americans — has taken up the mantle as the latest privatization crusader,” they added. The hearing will likely get heated, as Democrats are expected to press Bisignano on whether he agrees with the approach DOGE and the acting commissioner have taken so far, as well as his thoughts on threats to customer service and timely benefits, and Elon Musk and Trump’s claims about fraud in Social Security.“The Social Security administrator nominee needs to come clean with the American people. Is he in favor of the cuts that Elon Musk and his DOGE boys are trying to execute at the Social Security Administration? Or does he plan, once he has the power, to put a stop to it? Is he in favor of the privatization of Social Security that many Republicans are still advancing? Or does he plan to make a stand and put a stop to it? That’s what I want to hear from him,” Warren said. Bisignano is the chief executive officer of payments technology at Fiserv, which some Democrats have raised concerns since the company could benefit from any privatization of Social Security.The Senate Intelligence Committee will meet today at 10 a.m. ET for its"Worldwide Threats" hearing, an annual intelligence community oversight hearing with testimony from the heads of the intel agencies. The open hearing, expected to run almost three hours, will be followed by a classified, closed session. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is the only official who will give an opening statement, but all officials participating will take questions from senators. The hearing comes less than 24 hours after The Atlantic reported that Jeffrey Goldberg was added to a Signal group chat with Trump administration officials about U.S. military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen. The group chat reportedly included two of the officials scheduled to testify today: Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Senators said they expect questions regarding “I would expect it would, and I would expect our Democrat colleagues would raise it. And I suspect some of my Republican colleagues may raise it just as an issue to be very concerned about,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said yesterday.
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