Moulton rips Hegseth for chat that 'cheapens' work of military, intelligence
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) hammered Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for using a Signal group chat to communicate about strikes on the Houthi rebel group in Yemen.
“This put American lives at risk. This cheapens the work that our men and women on the front lines of our armed services and our intelligence agencies do every single day,” Moulton, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said during a Tuesday briefing held by House Democrats.
“Because it says the rules that apply to you don't apply to us as your leaders. There's a simple concept that I would have thought Pete Hegseth would have learned in the National Guard, which is leadership by example,” he added.
Hegseth reportedly sent sensitive information through the encrypted messaging platform to defense leaders including Vice President Vance, national security adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic.
The journalist stayed in the chat for days with his presence unnoticed and access to high-level security intel. Multiple Democratic leaders have called for Hegseth and Waltz to resign over the incident.
“If any guardsman at any level, including the most junior private, had done what Pete Hegseth did, he would not only be fired, would not only lose his security clearance, but he would probably be criminally prosecuted,” Moulton said of the circumstances.
Hegseth has denied that he was sharing war plans and scolded Goldberg for suggesting otherwise.
“Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” the Defense secretary said when prompted by reporters.
He also called Goldberg “a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.
President Trump has referred to the breach as a “glitch” that had no impact on the airstrikes in Yemen.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump told NBC’s Garrett Haake, later adding this was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”
However, Moulton maintains that classified information was transmitted and stored on a public platform.
“They're saying, 'Oh, this information wasn't classified.' Without even knowing the full details, we know that the time of attack for this operation was in the message,” Moulton said.
“Let's be clear. That's classified information. That's all you need to know.”
Both Gabbard and Ratcliffe faced scrutiny from Congress members during a scheduled Tuesday hearing, while other leaders will likely be asked later to answer questions regarding the Signal chat and its appropriateness for communication about national security measures.
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