{"id":22982,"date":"2025-03-26T17:19:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T23:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/excuse-after-excuse-colorado-lawmakers-blast-signal-app-chat-group\/"},"modified":"2025-03-26T23:19:26","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T23:19:26","slug":"excuse-after-excuse-colorado-lawmakers-blast-signal-app-chat-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/excuse-after-excuse-colorado-lawmakers-blast-signal-app-chat-group\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Excuse after excuse\u2019 \u2013 Colorado lawmakers blast Signal app chat group"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Director
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, flanked by FBI Director Kash Patel, left, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, testifies as the House Intelligence Committee holds a hearing on worldwide threats, at the Capitol, in Washington, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite)<\/span>(AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado lawmakers have a lot of criticism for the members of President Trump\u2019s National Security team who used a Signal group chat to share sensitive material on military strikes in Yemen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the consequences should be that these guys lose their jobs,\u201d Sen. Michael Bennet told CPR\u2019s Colorado Matters. Bennet sits on the Senate Intelligence panel and questioned two of the people in the group, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA head John Ratcliffe, Tuesday morning, after the story broke.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should never have been sharing battle plans on an unclassified network, which is what Signal is,\u201d Bennet said. \u201cSince they\u2019ve been caught lying about the classified nature of the material that was on there, and in that hearing yesterday, disgracefully asserting that there was nothing wrong with their Signal thread, which is such an insult to the men and women of our intelligence agencies who are held to a much higher standard than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and others have downplayed the sensitivity of the information shared in the chat, which The Atlantic<\/em> magazine\u2019s editor-in-chief was inadvertently added to, saying it contained no \u201cwar plans\u201d or classified information.<\/p>\n

The magazine on Wednesday morning released the full chat. It showed Hegseth gave the group an anticipated timeline of the strikes, including when planes would launch, when a trigger-based strike of the \u201ctarget terrorist\u201d who was at his \u201cknown location\u201d would occur, and when MQ-9 drones would strike and sea-based Tomahawks would launch.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the strikes, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who created the Signal group, added that the first target, the Houthi\u2019s \u201ctop missile guy\u201d was identified going \u201cinto the girlfriend\u2019s building and it\u2019s now collapsed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennet has called on Hegseth, Waltz and Gabbard to resign. Bennet accused Gabbard, a former House member, of lying to Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an open Intelligence Committee hearing yesterday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that Trump administration officials did not discuss any classified information \u2013 or information on weapons packages, targets, or timing \u2013 in their Signal group chat coordinating U.S. strikes on Yemen. As the chat\u2019s transcript makes clear, this is plainly false,\u201d he wrote on social media. \u201cShe must resign immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabbard insisted during Wednesday\u2019s House Intelligence hearing that the conversation was \u201csensitive and candid\u201d but not classified.<\/p>\n

Bennet isn\u2019t the only one calling for people to lose their jobs. Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette called for Hegseth and Waltz to resign, and for Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe to be investigated. \u201cThe level of incompetence shown by the Secretary of Defense and National Security Advisor is staggering,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Rep. Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said being a leader means accepting responsibility when things go wrong and admitting mistakes. He said the administration officials testifying in front of the committee were not accepting any responsibility, but giving \u201cexcuse, after excuse, after excuse\u201d rather than saying it was wrong and it would not happen again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is outrageous and it is a leadership failure. And that\u2019s why Secretary Hegseth, who undoubtedly transmitted classified, sensitive, operational information via this chain, must resign immediately,\u201d he said at the hearing.<\/p>\n

Rep. Joe Neguse, House Assistant Minority Leader, added the blunder was \u201creckless and revealing, highlighting the gross incompetence of those entrusted with our nation\u2019s most classified information.\u201d<\/p>\n

The criticism crossed the aisle.<\/p>\n

Republican Rep. Jeff Hurd said in a statement that he was \u201cconcerned that high ranking officials failed to follow proper protocols in handling sensitive national security operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLapses in judgment like this put American lives and assets at risk. We must hold our leaders to the highest standards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But at least one Colorado Republican, Rep. Lauren Boebert, is standing behind Hegseth. \u201cThe Left has been terrified of Pete Hegseth from the day President Trump nominated him. They\u2019ll use any excuse to try and get rid of him,\u201d she wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

CPR News also reached out to Republican Reps. Gabe Evans and Jeff Crank for comment, but has received no response.<\/p>\n

While Democrats in Congress have been unified in their criticism of the information that was put out on Signal, Republicans have had a mixed response. Some have expressed concern, but none have called for members of the national security team to step down.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters the significance of the chat had been \u201coverblown, I think, by the media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, in a sign of how serious some are taking this breach, the Senate Armed Services Committee has asked for an expedited Inspector General investigation into the Signal conversation.<\/p>\n

It may not be the only investigation. The White House said President Trump has asked Elon Musk to look into what happened as well.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the House Democrats\u2019 Litigation\/Response Task Force added that the group is expected to ask for the FBI to also look into the \u201creckless and illegal practices of these Cabinet officials that put service members at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

far, only Democrats are calling for resignations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,2502,25,1566],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-national-security","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet","tag-u-s-senate"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22982"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}