A majority of voters say holding a discussion of plans to attack the Houthis in Yemen on the messaging app Signal was wrong, according to a new poll.
The Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found that 60 percent believe using Signal for the discussion was wrong, including 73 percent of Democrats, 65 percent of independents and 43 percent of Republicans. A majority of voters, 54 percent, also said they consider the incident to be a “big deal,” while 46 percent said the reaction to it is overblown.
The results come after The Atlantic published messages from the chat that the outlet’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to earlier this month in which several members of the national security team discussed details of the strike. The messages revealed specific details of the attack like the timeline and the weapons used.
The Trump administration has sought to do damage control on the incident, slamming The Atlantic and arguing that the backlash to it has been overblown. Trump acknowledged that national security adviser Mike Waltz took responsibility for it but said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “had nothing to do with it.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe maintained during a Senate hearing that no classified information was discussed in the chat.
But even some Republicans have at least expressed concerns about the sensitive information being discussed and the inclusion of a reporter in the chat.
Trump has said he wouldn’t fire anyone because of “fake news” and “witch hunts,” but the poll found 54 percent believe Waltz should be fired over the incident, while 46 percent said he should only be reprimanded.
Those who said Waltz should be fired include 68 percent of Democrats, 53 percent of independents and 41 percent of Republicans.
Pollster Mark Penn told The Hill that the public believes the incident was a mistake but questioned how long-lasting the effects will be on overall opinion of the Trump administration.
“Obviously the public thinks [it] was a mistake to hold this sensitive conversation on a private company app rather than on a government system,” he said. “I think though this issue has limits and is likely to be forgotten in the next few months.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that the administration's probe into the incident has closed, adding that steps have been taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again. But she didn’t specify what steps have been taken.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit has been filed against the national security leaders, with the group American Oversight arguing that using Signal to discuss the attack plans violated the Federal Records Act. A federal judge has ruled that the administration must preserve all Signal communications sent between March 11 and March 15, ...
