During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday, Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) had to step in to clear up a point of confusion.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were testifying about a controversial situation where Trump administration officials shared information about an attack on Yemen’s Houthi rebels on the unsecure app Signal, accidentally sending it to a journalist.
While the officials had insisted no classified information was involved in the chat, Cotton wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page. He asked if they were referring to intelligence-specific classified info or just classified material in general, making a distinction between the two. Both Gabbard and Ratcliffe agreed they meant the latter.
However, up until that point, neither Gabbard nor Ratcliffe had made that distinction. They had both said there was “no classified material” shared on Signal, which Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) pointed out, had been much broader than what Cotton clarified. This mix-up raised questions about the Trump administration’s messaging, leaving room for doubt about how sensitive the information actually was.
It turns out, whether the info was classified or not might not matter as much as how dangerous it was. According to a report from The Atlantic, the officials shared details about an upcoming military strike including targets, weapons, and attack plans which could have dire consequences if in the wrong hands, regardless of classification.
Even Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, agreed that such information should be kept secure to prevent enemies from getting a heads-up.
After Cotton’s clarification, Gabbard and Ratcliffe seemed to shift responsibility to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who reportedly shared the sensitive info. Ratcliffe emphasized that Hegseth had the authority to declassify such information, and he was the one to ask about it.
Democrats pounced on the situation, questioning how such critical information could not be classified. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) asked if Gabbard and Ratcliffe would consider plans for military strikes on another country classified, and Ratcliffe agreed that they should be. This only reinforced the idea that the information should have been classified.
Even President Trump seemed hesitant to fully back up the administration’s claims. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt initially denied any classified material had been shared. However, by Tuesday afternoon, Trump had added “from what I understand” to similar statements, signaling uncertainty about whether the information was officially declassified by Hegseth.
While the administration has often taken a hard stance on defending its actions, the unclear details of this situation are proving to be more difficult to handle, leaving them to carefully navigate the issue and figure out how to respond.
Trump Team’s Signal Slip-Up: Uncertainty Over Classified Info Leak
