Republican Intelligence Leaders Brush Off Newly Released Signal Texts During House Hearing, Even as Gabbard and Rubio Admit Event Was ‘a Mistake’

The head of America’s intelligence community admitted on Capitol Hill Wednesday that it was a “mistake” that journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was included in a Signal group text with national security officials, as Republicans largely brushed off concerns and told Democrats the issue has consumed too much of their time.On Wednesday, five leaders of America’s intelligence community, including director of national intelligence Gabbard, CIA director Ratcliffe, and FBI director Patel, testified before the House Intelligence Committee for the annual global threat assessment hearing — a discussion that was obviously complicated by the disclosure of more Signal texts an hour before the hearing began. Mr. Goldberg — after having his journalistic bona fides questioned by the White House on Tuesday — made the decision to publish the text messages from the Signal group themselves. The most damning text from that thread was Secretary Hegseth’s minute-by-minute plan for a bombing operation against the Houthi rebel group in Yemen, which has been responsible for disrupting global shipping over the past several months. The national security advisor, Michael Waltz, offered details on the text thread about an alleged Houthi fighter who was killed as he was walking into his girlfriend’s house. During her opening statement, Ms. Gabbard tried to get ahead of the questions she knew she would be asked by Democrats by saying that the inclusion of Mr. Goldberg in the Signal chat was a “mistake” that should not have happened. Just 24 hours earlier, Ms. Gabbard refused to comment, for the most part, on the whole affair while being questioned by senators. “In closing, I want to address briefly the Signal chat issue that I know many of you are concerned about. The president and National Security Advisor Waltz held a press conference yesterday with a clear message: It was a mistake that a reporter was inadvertently added to a Signal chat with high-level national security principals having a policy discussion about imminent strikes against the Houthis,” Ms. Gabbard said in her opening statement. “The national security advisor has taken full responsibility for this.”Secretary Rubio said the same during his trip to Jamaica on Wednesday. At a press conference, the secretary of state admitted that, “Obviously, someone made a mistake.”“Someone made a big mistake, and added a journalist. Nothing against journalists, but you aren’t supposed to be on that thing,” Mr. Rubio said. The chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Congressman Rick Crawford, made clear on Wednesday that he believed the Signal leak was no big deal, and that Democrats were just trying to politicize the affair for political gain. “Yesterday, our colleagues on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence held their hearing on the annual threat assessment, and unfortunately, instead of exploring the real and existential threats that face our nation — which is the purpose of this hearing — this issue consumed most of their time,” Mr. Crawford said in his opening remarks. Rather than labor away on the Signal question, the chairman said he would rather spend his time talking about other “foreign threats” that don’t have anything to do with the accidental disclosure of the bombing in Yemen. Mr. Crawford made no mention of the Signal leak when he began questioning intelligence officials. Democrats — like their Senate counterparts on Tuesday, who held their own annual threat assessment hearing — laid into Ms. Gabbard and Mr. Ratcliffe for the most part, given that they were both on the Signal thread and neither noticed that Mr. Goldberg had been included in the chat. “It’s by the awesome grace of God that we are not mourning dead pilots right now,” the top Democrat on the panel, Congressman Jim Himes, told officials during his opening statement. Mr. Himes specifically pointed to two uniformed officers who now lead two of America’s premier intelligence agencies — General Timothy Haugh of the National Security Agency and Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse of Defense Intelligence Agency. “The two general officers sitting at the table and the people working for all of you know that if they had set up and participated in the Signal chat, they would be gone,” Mr. Himes told the intelligence officials during his opening statement. One member of the House who previously wore stars on his shoulders, Congressman Don Bacon, has said that if he — while in uniform — had screwed up as badly as Messrs. Waltz and Hegseth had, he would have been court-martialed. During questions from Senate Democrats on Tuesday, Ms. Gabbard repeatedly said that she could not recall specifics about the group text from earlier this much, which frustrated lawmakers. Mr. Himes pressed Ms. Gabbard on her non-answers on Tuesday, though she said Wednesday that her memory had been jogged. “My answer yesterday was based on my recollection, or the lack thereof,” Ms. Gabbard said. “A lot of this suggests, sort of a lack of sobriety when there [are] punch emojis and fire emojis — it’s a lack of sobriety … I don’t mean that literally,” a frustrated Mr. Himes shot back, seemingly making a joke about allegations that Mr. Hegseth suffers from a drinking problem. Mr. Hegseth similarly brushed off concerns about the exact schedule of the bombing campaign that he had shared in the text threat. “My job is to provide updates in real time — general updates in real time,” Mr. Hegesth said on the tarmac in Hawaii during his trip to the Indo-Pacific. “That’s what I did. That’s my job.”

Republican Intelligence Leaders Brush Off Newly Released Signal Texts During House Hearing, Even as Gabbard and Rubio Admit Event Was ‘a Mistake’

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