On Tuesday, House Democrats held a press briefing to discuss the Signal group chat war plans leak.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for being here. They made the big mistake of letting
00:20an Army person be in charge, so I take accountability for any miscues out of the gate. Accountability,
00:26something we have not heard much of from the White House lately. So I'm honored to be here
00:32with fellow colleagues, all of whom at various phases of their lives and careers have worn
00:38the uniform in service to our nation, put their life on the line, not for party or themselves,
00:44but for country. And this is a watershed moment, we believe, in our country, where we need
00:49to speak up, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as patriots and say it is absolutely unacceptable
00:55that sensitive security information, operational information, that would put American lives,
01:02lives of our constituents in harm's way. And you're going to hear from all of us today
01:09several common themes. One, accountability. All of us knew this, serving in uniform. You're
01:16responsible for everything your organization does and fails to do. At a minimum, we're
01:21calling on our Republican colleagues to share in that joint call for accountability, that
01:26there needs to be a fulsome and transparent investigation into what happened with the
01:31leakage of the information that we know about and potentially much more sensitive national
01:36security information out there. And then the second piece is we're continuing to call on
01:44the House Armed Services Committee, through their oversight means, to hold a hearing on
01:49this. And if that is not answered, we'll continue to escalate on behalf of our constituents,
01:54on behalf of the American people, to have that transparency and to have that accountability.
01:59So again, I want to thank all my colleagues for being here, and I'm going to hand it to
02:04Congressman Mike Thompson next.
02:06Sir.
02:08Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much, and thank you to all of our colleagues who are
02:13here today. I'm Mike Thompson from California's 4th Congressional District. I served in the
02:19United States Army with 173rd Airborne Brigade and did a tour of duty in Vietnam, and I spent
02:25eight years on the House Intel Committee. And I'm here today with my colleagues because
02:32we're dealing with a gang that can't shoot straight. This is an incredibly serious, unforced
02:39error that they made. And their error put American service members' lives in danger,
02:49and that is not something that we're going to tolerate. We learned very early, every
02:55one of us in our careers, that loose lips sink ships. And this is a textbook perfect
03:01example of that. The idea that you would go on an unsecured platform to talk about
03:10a military invasion is just absolutely mind-boggling. Nobody in their adult, good, sober judgment
03:21would do that. And this is a huge problem. One of the people on that venue was in Moscow
03:30when this information was being talked about. In Moscow. And to suggest that this isn't
03:35dangerous is absolutely beyond me. It was dangerous, it was reckless, it was an unforced
03:44error, and we need to come together to figure out what happened, why it happened, what else
03:51is going on. This isn't the only time that this has happened, I'm pretty sure of that.
03:56We need to make sure what else is going on, and we need our Republican colleagues to stand
04:02with us to bring about a transparent and a clear and thorough investigation. And it's
04:09my honor to introduce Ted Lieu, fellow Californian, a former colonel in the United States Air
04:17Force.
04:18Thank you, Mike. I want to thank Pat Ryan and Mike Thompson for organizing this really
04:24important press conference. What Secretary of Defense Pete Hexet did was outrageous.
04:30He sent secret war plans to a journalist, and the reason that that is so reckless is
04:37if anyone other than people who should have had that information got it, you could put
04:43pilots at risk. If a foreign television service somehow was monitoring that group chat, they
04:50could have given it to Houthis, and Houthis could have shot down a pilot. It's really,
04:55really disturbing that the White House still does not seem to understand the seriousness
05:00of this problem. Even today, they're saying somehow that this information was not classified.
05:05They were just lying. All of us here, a certain uniform, we know that that wouldn't have been
05:10classified. You cannot talk about the time, date, place, targets, statements of strikes,
05:16and not have that be classified because, again, you're putting American troops' lives
05:20at risk.
05:21And I also want people to understand that it's not just that the Signal app was not
05:26authorized. The Pentagon sent an email, according to public reporting, on March 18 saying, do
05:32not use this. It's that you've got software out there, one of them is known as Pegasus,
05:38that simply takes over and controls your phone. So you don't even have to break into the Signal
05:43app. You simply become the user, and you can simply monitor everything that is happening.
05:47So when Foreign Intelligence Service was doing that, this, again, was very reckless and endangered
05:53our national security, and that's why we're calling for an investigation to get to the
05:57bottom of this, and we're asking for accountability.
06:00And with that, my honor to introduce the great member from New Jersey, Mikey Sherrill.
06:05Hi, I'm Mikey Sherrill. I'm a former Navy helicopter pilot and a former Russian policy
06:11officer. And I have to tell you, I remember as only a teenager when I entered into the
06:17Navy getting my first security brief and understanding how important security is to our military.
06:24As we've all heard for years, loose lips sink ships. And now we have at the top echelons
06:30of our government people who don't seem to understand the need for any national security.
06:35We even, as you heard, had a report that someone was in Moscow.
06:39Having traveled myself to Moscow, I know the type of operational security that is expected
06:45there of military members. I know the briefings that I received. And so to think that now
06:50we have a government that has so little concern for our security is really, I think, infuriating.
06:57And to see all of these members here who have served, who know that their lives have been
07:02on the line, and know that what the minimum that they should be able to count on is that
07:07their own government is not going to sell them out to foreign adversaries, that their
07:10own government is going to take their security seriously. And yes, to think that anybody
07:16is saying now that this was not secure information or this was not secret information or classified
07:21information. And anybody, anybody who knows anything about this area, and there are people
07:27on that signal chain that know better, know that this is classified information. You don't
07:32give targeting information. You don't give time. You put people in danger. People's lives,
07:37American lives were in danger because of that signal chain. The thought that you would be
07:42in Moscow and that nobody would be monitoring your text chains or that nobody would have
07:48access to that is really ludicrous at this day and age. I don't think anybody buys that
07:53either. So to think now that this is going to go uninvestigated or that armed services
07:58is not going to hold a hearing on this in the House, is really, I think, completely
08:03disregarding what just happened, the danger of the situation, and the sense that I think
08:08we all have that if this has been reported on, we need to know what else is going on
08:13because somebody's got a clean house at the White House. And it's obviously not going
08:17to be the president, who is now up to his old trick, so I'm declassifying it. Well,
08:21too late, buddy, right? Like this was classified information. This put lives in danger. An
08:26investigation needs to take place. That is what we are calling for, and I think the House
08:31Armed Services Committee needs to hold hearings on this and get to the bottom of it so no
08:35more service members are put in danger. So I'm really glad to be here today, and with
08:40that, I am going to turn it over to my colleague, Salud Carbajal, to speak next. Thank you.
08:48Thank you, Mikey. What else can we say? Recklessness at its best. I served in the United States
08:59Marine Corps Reserve for most of my service. I was mobilized for Desert Storm. I went to
09:04North Carolina, didn't make it out to the theater. But I speak for all the service members
09:10that were put at risk here. This was reckless at best, and an illegal violation of the Espionage
09:17Records Act. That's what transpired here. And as we see typically with this administration,
09:24they denied. First they denied. Secretary of Defense denied when that was asked by the
09:30media. Then they went to saying that it was not classified. They unknowingly put somebody
09:37who was not part of the national security team on their signal channel. That's what
09:42they did. And then, knowingly, they did this on a signal channel that was not a secure
09:49method of communication. This is recklessness, and we need to hold the administration accountable.
09:57They put our service members at risk. Could you imagine the enemies or others that they
10:04were targeting knowing all our plans? We could have dead pilots today. We could have dead
10:11pilots today, and so many others that could have been injured or killed because of their
10:15reckless behavior. This is amateur honor. And the Senate confirmed this cabal of incompetent
10:24buffoons. Let's call it what it is. So today I think I'm glad to join my fellow veterans
10:32calling for accountability, calling for the cleaning of the White House, and taking action
10:39to make sure that this ridiculous behavior doesn't happen again. With that, I will introduce
10:49Congressman Derek Tran.
10:51We're going to get the Marine out of the way.
10:56You know what? They wrote it in crayon, that's fine.
11:04No offense to Derek. We're going to get Congressman Chris DeLuzio.
11:10It's an honor to join these great colleagues of mine, all of us who wore the uniform in
11:23different ways in different times. I was a naval officer. I served at sea and on the
11:27ground in Iraq. What we saw from this administration was reckless. It was a dangerous breach of
11:32our national security. It was probably criminal conduct. There has to be consequences. This
11:37included the Vice President of the United States, the Director of the CIA, the Secretary
11:40of Defense, the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of State. I could go on and
11:44on. Here's some of the most powerful people in America. If any of us had done this as
11:50junior enlisted or junior officers, what do you think would have happened? It would be
11:53court-martialed. You'd likely end up in Fort Leavenworth or something like it. And to these
11:58people to think that they may not face consequences is outrageous. It cannot happen.
12:05Now, we know Secretary of Excel's own Pentagon warned just last week that there were hacking
12:11vulnerabilities to Signal, the very platform they were communicating on. Communicating
12:17about, you heard it here, sensitive, classified material. There is no defense for this. And
12:24so what we are all saying here is something obvious. There has to be accountability. There
12:28needs to be a full investigation. And again, there are likely violations of the Espionage
12:32Act. There are likely violations of record-keeping requirements. They were communicating in a
12:37platform that purposefully deletes their communications. That is a violation of federal law. They are
12:44obscuring and hiding records from the American people. They were putting at risk service
12:49members who were carrying out these strikes. Now, I've said heads should roll. There have
12:55to be people who lose their jobs over this. There has to be a full investigation. I serve
12:59on the Armed Services Committee and join the calls that there is a full public accounting
13:03for what happened here. And when we uncover exactly who committed wrongdoing, if those
13:07folks don't resign, we should remove them from office. There can be no defense for this.
13:12They put our national security at risk. It is our duty in Congress to make sure that
13:16oversight happens. And I know these members and I will do everything we can to make sure
13:19it happens. So with that, I'm honored to introduce a fellow Pennsylvanian veteran, Congressman
13:24Huland. Congresswoman Huland, excuse me.
13:27No worries. And thank you very much. And thank you very much for organizing this and this
13:32opportunity to reiterate what has already been said. When I was a little girl, when
13:37I was 10 years old, I lived in Annandale, Virginia. My dad was the Navy person responsible
13:43to Secretary Brown, Secretary of Defense Brown. Under his bed, my father's bed, was
13:47a red phone. I was instructed as a 10-year-old, never, ever, under any circumstances, do I
13:53touch or pick up that phone. Because that was the way that they were able to communicate
13:57back in 1970, whatever, to make sure that they could have conversations, active conversations.
14:02Fast forward to the 80s, when I was an active duty lieutenant myself and spent the bulk
14:07of my career in a skiff. Having learned all of the different ways that you manage classified
14:11information and don't manage classified information, if I had done this as a junior officer, I
14:16would have absolutely marched myself into my colonel's office and resigned on the spot.
14:21In addition, I would have expected to be sent to jail. So Pete Hexeth, Mike Waltz, Marco
14:26Ripio, I mean, listen to this list. Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and every other Trump
14:30administration official who uses signal for war planning and mission execution has to
14:35be held to account for their stunning incompetence and their intentional clear defiance. So that's
14:40what we are all doing here today. We want to make sure that the hearing is called. We
14:45expect, frankly, that no hearing will be called. And so that we will have to at some point
14:49escalate this. But for either this group of Cavalier officials, this group of Cavalier
14:53officials does not grasp the danger that they have put our nation in. If they don't grasp
14:58that, they just don't care. So either way, whether they care or don't care, know or don't
15:03understand, this is a colossal screw up, and they need to be accountable for that. So the
15:08issue for the administration is not to address, we talked about some red herrings, how a reporter
15:13got added to a signal chat. That's a complete red herring. Although the gaslighting currently
15:18underway from the President and the National Security Council themselves, that's what they're
15:23trying to fool you with. I can tell you exactly what happened. We all use signal. Accidentally,
15:27Mike Waltz typed in somebody's name and he got added to the chat. And the rest is, as
15:33they say, history. And it's history because we now have the receipts. We can now, thanks
15:38to the Atlantic's reporter, have the magic of screenshots. And so if we're being told
15:44that there is nothing to see here, and that none of this is classified, and that no information
15:48was shared on an unsecured or unapproved communication platform that was classified, then that's
15:53just fine. Then show us the money. Show us the receipts. Don't edit it. Don't redact
15:59it. Don't disappear it. Release it, and release it right now. But we know they won't do that
16:03either. They're lying about what happened because it was reckless, because it was probably
16:08illegal. They're covering for themselves and for others. They're gaslighting us here in
16:12the Congress, you here in the audience, everybody back home. The same people who have spent
16:16months, and in some cases years, pursuing leaks of classified information and promised
16:21forms of legal retribution are now tightening their own ranks and closing their own ranks.
16:27So who gets hurt when that happens? We've talked about it a little bit. Men and women
16:31in uniform get hurt and possibly die. And the fact that nobody did die apparently right
16:36now is just an accident of chance and luck. So we, the American people, and us, the members
16:41of Congress, we owe ourselves a level of accountability, and we call for an investigation and an investigation
16:47now. It is my privilege to introduce a fellow colleague, also from the Armed Services and
16:54the Intel Committee, as well, Representative Jason Crow of Colorado.
17:01Good afternoon. I'm Jason Crow from Colorado, and it is my pleasure to be here with my colleagues,
17:08my comrades and brothers and sisters in arms that represents almost a hundred years of
17:15military service standing behind me here today. We all understand that our deepest and most
17:24sacred obligation is to protect the men and women in uniform who protect us every single
17:31day. There's nothing more serious that we do day in and day out here to ensure that
17:36these men and women are protected and that they can go home to their families when their
17:41mission is done. And it's that that makes this incident, this reckless breach of security,
17:48so staggering, right? Because it not only put at great risk the lives of those airmen
17:56and women who were conducting an extremely dangerous mission that day, but it also represents
18:02a larger pattern. And I'd like to talk about that. See, this isn't a one-off event. This
18:09isn't just a singular mistake that the administration still hasn't admitted that it needs to fix.
18:17This is part of a larger pattern of disregard, of impunity, of not taking its job seriously
18:24in our most sensitive national security life and death decisions. Whether it's transmitting
18:30the names of intelligence officers in an unclassified channel to the White House, whether it's
18:35Elon Musk's private employees hooking up a personal computer to a sensitive national
18:41security system, compromising that system, whether it's giving Elon Musk and his employees
18:45access to private, personal, financial, and data of American people. This happens over
18:55and over and over again. So the pattern that has brought to light through this incident
19:03shows very clearly that this administration simply does not care about protecting your
19:11data, protecting your information, and simply does not care to take seriously enough protecting
19:17sensitive national security information. Now we hope that there was no damage done here.
19:23We don't know that to be true because we still have to do the investigation. But folks, it
19:27is simply a matter of time before the culture of recklessness and impunity of the Trump
19:32administration is going to get a lot of people hurt very badly. And that will only be stopped
19:40if there's a change in culture. And the only way you change culture is by getting information,
19:45bringing it to light, and then imposing accountability on those responsible. That is what must happen.
19:51And if Donald Trump and the Trump administration do not do that, they are sending a very clear
19:56message once again that they do not care about the safety of the American people. Now it's
20:01my honor to pass this over to another fellow combat veteran, Seth Moulton from Massachusetts.
20:10Accountability is back. Accountability is back. I quote Secretary Pete Hegseth. That
20:29was our Secretary of Defense on the record just a couple of months ago. Now the debate
20:37among national security professionals is over whether the Secretary was just incompetent
20:45or whether he was drunk. That's how low this has gone. And those are serious debates happening
20:51among national security professionals today. Because my colleagues are right, this put
20:58American lives at risk. This cheapens the work that our national security professionals
21:06and our men and women on the front lines of our armed services and our intelligence
21:10agencies do every single day. Because it says the rules that apply to you don't apply to
21:19us as your leaders. There's a simple concept that I would have thought Pete Hegseth would
21:27have learned in the National Guard, which is leadership by example. Well let me tell
21:35you, if any guardsman at any level, including the most junior private, had done what Pete
21:42Hegseth did, he would not only be fired, would not only lose his security clearance, but
21:51he would probably be criminally prosecuted. Let's just debunk a few myths here. Because
21:59now, the approach these leaders are taking is to lie. That's not in the leadership manual
22:09for our armed services, but that's what they're doing now. They're saying, oh, this information
22:14wasn't classified. Without even knowing the full details, we know that the time of attack
22:21for this operation was in the message. Let's be clear. That's classified information. That's
22:34all you need to know. Let's address another issue. Was this illegal? It's illegal on two
22:41different levels. One, it's mishandling classified information. That's been well established.
22:49But the second level it's illegal on is that the executives are required to maintain records
22:55of its communications. And this is a way for this lawless administration to get around
23:01that. Third, was there a risk? Yes. There is tremendous risk. That's why national security
23:12professionals, including everyone on that group chat, aside from the people who weren't
23:16supposed to be on it, has 24-7 access to classified proper means of communication.
23:26So if the national security advisor feels like, oh, I need to chat with someone, well,
23:30guess what? In his home, in his office, on his plane, he has the means to do so within
23:35the law. So there is no excuse here. But there's also clearly no accountability. And it's very
23:43clear that Secretary Hegseth, with how he is handling this, has no honor, has no sense
23:56of duty, and has absolutely zero accountability for his own actions. It's now my honor to
24:04yield to a fantastic freshman veteran, Congressman Biden.
24:10Well, thank you. We've heard some really passionate remarks today. And I want to look at this
24:20from a perspective of a 25-year Army veteran, a JAG that's prosecuted cases, serious cases
24:28of violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and felony-type cases, and also investigated
24:38these types of breaches. And so operational security is a basic but critical function.
24:47And it's something that's taught to the very youngest of service members. And what we saw
24:55in this breach, in this leak, is those basic ideas thrown out. Because there's a sense
25:04of callousness, of indifference, of lack of accountability in this administration that
25:12is deeply disturbing. So anybody that has a family member that is in uniform, anybody
25:18that has a family member or is themselves serving in national security is now very concerned.
25:26Because they saw their senior leaders, 18 of the most senior people in the national
25:32security establishment, callously sharing information, information that I, as a member
25:40of the National Security Council staff, previously sat through a principals committee, literally
25:45the pinnacle of our national security establishment. I can only imagine that the data included
25:52things like the operational op plans for the attack. There is no chance in hell that this
26:02was not classified information. It's just not possible, certainly at the time that it
26:06was released. And so signal gate is real. And we need to take appropriate measures to
26:15protect the American people and national security. And so the way you do that is you
26:19investigate. And it's incumbent on folks in the executive branch, in the White House,
26:26in every department and agency to understand the scope of this breach. It's standard procedure.
26:34Investigate to figure out what is the extent of the spillage, and then take measures to
26:40remediate that. Our job in Congress is to exercise an oversight role. We have to have
26:45a clear understanding of exactly what happened. Is this very unlikely the only PC that was
26:53held on the signal? No. I doubt it. Who exactly was on this? I mean, there are references
27:03to the VP, and I only say this tongue-in-cheek. VP Vladimir Putin. No, we need to understand
27:09very well exactly who did what to understand the full scope of the breach and take appropriate
27:15measures. The messages were undoubtedly classified, and we need a full accounting. And the last
27:22thing I'll say is the President has previously released information that was in the classified
27:28realm to clear the air. He has the same opportunity to do that now. He can release exactly what
27:35was on the signal string, so the American people, in an act of full transparency, can
27:41understand what's going on, and we can move on. In any other administration, this would
27:48have been considered the type of controversy that was enough to bring down Cabinet Secretaries.
27:57In this one, it just seems like a random Monday. So we need to get rid of this air of lack
28:02of accountability and take appropriate steps. Thank you.
28:11I have the honor to introduce Burk Conway. Thank you.
28:20Well, you've heard quite a lot, quite properly, about this very serious breach. The superlatives
28:27and so on and on. The worst security breach that anyone has seen in our nation's warfighting
28:32history since, I don't know, for decades. We have an administration which plays fast
28:38and loose with the rules, disregards privacy of individuals, and now we find disregards
28:45the secrecy that should attend a warfighting action. The job of the Commander-in-Chief
28:50is certainly to protect our nation, but it's also the job of the Commander-in-Chief to
28:55protect our warfighters when they are sent into action. The idea that this information
29:00should be shared on non-secure channels where foreign adversaries can access it, where they
29:08can understand how military operations might be conducted, and, as we've heard, no accountability,
29:16no explanation, but to pass it off as, well, it's just another thing, should anger every
29:23citizen of this country, should anger our allies who are now going to need to be concerned
29:28about what will happen to their information when it's passed along to the highest, the
29:34upper reaches of our administration and the national security structure. This is very
29:39serious.
29:40...administration, that this had happened during the Obama administration. We heard
29:44calls when Secretary Clinton had a private server that she should not only be prosecuted,
29:51but she should be investigated, she should be put in jail. We've heard this over and
29:54over again in prior campaigns. Now, this has happened at this time with this administration.
30:01Again, if it was Biden, if it was Obama, we would be having hearings. The hearings would
30:07be scheduled before even all the facts were out, and they would be calling for not only
30:12an investigation, they would be calling for resignations. We have heard and we understand
30:16from people who know, from news organizations who know, that if any person who was a contractor
30:23for DOD, any person who was in the military who had engaged in this kind of security breach,
30:30they'd be out the door the next day. We've heard that people recognizing they made a
30:34mistake would step forward and resign, but we don't have that moral authority, unfortunately,
30:39the people that are at the top of our military and defense structure. And so, we are certainly
30:46calling for accountability, but in this gentleman's opinion, a true accountability will occur
30:54when Secretary, when the Secretary of Defense, heck, Seth, resigns his office, as he should,
31:02just like any enlisted person or any other contractor for DOD would have to do, and National
31:07Security Advisor Walz should do the same. They have committed very serious acts, and
31:14we've heard even possibly crimes. And we stand here calling for accountability, we must have
31:20it, the American people must demand it, and we must do all we can to ensure that accountability
31:26occurs. It's my honor and pleasure to bring forward, for the second time, Congressman
31:34Tran. Thank you. Resignation and investigation. I am so honored to stand shoulder to shoulder
31:46with my colleagues who have worn the uniform of our country. We know that making one mistake
31:52or ignoring one security requirement could put lives on the line. I wish the officials
31:59at the highest ranks of our national security establishment adhered to these standards.
32:04In fact, they should be held to much higher standards. They hold the ultimate responsibility
32:11of protecting American lives and the security of our nation and our allies. Instead, these
32:18Trump administration officials ignored every possible security measure, even some so basic
32:26that a high school student learned to follow. Vice President Vance, Secretary Hexeth, Secretary
32:34Rubio, National Security Advisor Walz, and other high-ranking officials recklessly shared
32:41precise details about weapon packages, targets, and timing over a signal group chat. This
32:49is not just a breach of protocol, this is a breach of national security. We know for
32:55sure that a journalist had access to the group chat, but what we don't know about still
33:01is who else had access. We need accountability. We need answers, not just who is responsible
33:09for these reckless actions, but what the Trump administration is going to make sure that
33:16this doesn't happen again. Resignations and investigations. Thank you. I'd like to invite
33:22up Congressman Gil Cisneros. Thank you, Derek. Thanks everyone for being here today and giving
33:32us this opportunity to speak to you about how bravely this is. I'm Gil Cisneros. I represent
33:38California's 31st Congressional District. I'm a Navy veteran, but also I was a former
33:43Undersecretary of Defense with personnel readiness, working in the Pentagon, understanding how
33:49the security of that system kind of works and how you communicate. And I can tell you
33:54this, when I was in the Pentagon, when I was the Undersecretary, never ever did we use
33:58signal to plan anything, any meetings, coordinate any efforts, or give away definitely any details
34:06about operations that were currently going on. Anytime you talk with the Secretary or
34:13Is that a secret level? You have, as it's been already said, right? There are devices
34:19that you had. I had multiple devices in my office that we would secure on secure networks,
34:25right? And then you had your unsecured network. Any operations or anything that was going
34:30on was definitely over secure channels. And that was not happening in this. And the thing
34:36that is really bothering me about this is the fact, too, that every office pretty much
34:42in the Pentagon is a SCIF. I mean, definitely the Secretary of Defense's office, but yet
34:49he's communicating on his personal cell phone. You're not supposed to be taking cell phones
34:54or Bluetooth or any of those devices into your SCIF where they can be kind of tapped
35:01into and listened to and brought into that environment. There is just a complete disregard
35:07for OPSEC, you know, for operation security by this administration. And then the audacity
35:16there is that the Secretary had actually said before this, too, right, that we're going
35:20to start getting down on OPSEC, that their OPSEC was tight. And they're looking into
35:25this. And he's actually talking about polygraphing, you know, people there at the
35:29Pentagon to find out where the leaks are. Well, problem solved. It's right there with
35:35the Secretary of Defense. And he should be the first in line there. He's the one who
35:40is creating the problems. You know, OPSEC is supposed to start with him. As it's been
35:46said, too, loose lips sink ships. That was something that every seaman learns when they
35:51join the Navy. It's right there at the beginning of boot camp. Nobody would have ever thought
35:56that it would start with the National Security Advisor as well as the Secretary of Defense
36:00or the ones who kind of laid out the information of where the details of this exercise were
36:06and how it was going. And so with that, thank you very much. And now I have the honor of
36:12introducing another former Navy colleague, Jimmy Panetta.
36:17Let me thank Congressman Thompson and Representative Ryan for putting this together. And, of course,
36:23it is a very proud yet disappointing moment that I get to stand here with my veterans
36:29and have this type of discussion with all of you. I'll keep it short because I'm sure
36:33it's probably getting a repetition. Some of you already finished all of your stories.
36:37But the fact is, is that repetition is kind of what we know up here, especially if you've
36:43served in the United States military. That's how they teach you basic things. And I can
36:48tell you that one of the most basic things that they teach you from the minute you take
36:53that oath is Operation Security, OPSEC. And you get it drilled into your head. And every
37:00member of the armed services from the lowest enlisted, and yes, you would hope, you would
37:07hope to the Secretary of Defense, would understand the importance of OPSEC. And you have to understand
37:13the importance of classified information and handling classified information because the
37:19problem is, is that classified information and that getting out can lead to the loss
37:25of lives, can lead to the loss of lives. And that is what happened here. This type of breach,
37:31this type of carelessness, this type of recklessness put men and women in uniform in jeopardy.
37:40I have a nephew that's serving on a ship in the Middle East right now. His life, I can
37:46tell you, was in jeopardy because of this. Mothers and fathers whose sons and daughters
37:51are serving over there at this moment should be very angry. They should be talking to their
37:58members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, about what we need to do to ensure that this
38:04never happens again. In regards to that, as you heard earlier, I too am dismayed at what
38:14would have happened if the shoe was on the other foot, if this was another administration
38:20and this happened. Where are our Republican colleagues? Where are our Republican colleagues
38:25who served in the military? Look, all of us up here will probably tell you we act in
38:30a very bipartisan manner. Of all times to be bipartisan, this is it, especially when
38:36it comes to this type of carelessness, especially when it comes to putting the lives of our
38:41military members in jeopardy. And so I'm here to basically say to call out and to ensure
38:47that we hope that we can ensure not only oversight of this situation, but that this is the type
38:53of oversight that needs to be done by Republicans and Democrats, especially when it comes to
38:58the men and women in our armed services. And so I hope that's something we can continue
39:03to work on. If not, basically you're seeing who actually understands what it means to
39:09keep our nation secure and keep our men and women in uniform and keep their lives secure
39:15as well. Thank you. Last one. Ryan, questions?
39:21They won't have any questions.
39:26A few members alluded to actions you could take or ways you could escalate this particular
39:32issue. What options are available to House Democrats to force action on this security
39:39breach?
39:40Excellent question. I think what you've heard from everybody here is we need to dig
39:44into this. We need to find out what the procedures are that they follow. How do we know this
39:50isn't happening in other places? How did this happen? It needs to be a full investigation.
39:55We need full transparency. And what we're doing is we're calling on everyone in Congress
40:01to come to the front line on this to make sure we get those answers.
40:05I'll just very quickly add. I mean, if House Republicans don't do the right thing by our
40:13nation and our men and women in uniform, everybody that is here today, we are going
40:17to ensure that they do the right thing. We will every single day remind people of the
40:22grave national security violation, the risk to all of our men and women in uniform, and
40:27we will not let them try to sweep this under the rug. I know our leadership is behind that,
40:31entire parties behind that, and you can hold each of us accountable to continue to push
40:36on that. And we appreciate your all's help to continue to focus on this until the right
40:40thing is done.
40:42I just want to add one thing on that real quick. At some point, the Secretary of Defense
40:46is going to have to come and testify in front of the House Armed Services Committee. And
40:50if they think he's not going to get asked about this, they're not living in reality.
40:56He's going to have to answer the call at some point, so why not do it now?
41:02Thank you. You all mentioned that you'll kind of escalate this if there isn't a House Armed
41:06Services investigation on this. Is there any chance that Democrats would do some sort of
41:10shadow hearing or shadow investigation on this topic to kind of get that information
41:15out?
41:16Well, I think you heard it loud and clear that what we believe needs to happen is the
41:21Congress of the United States of America, in a bipartisan manner, needs to do this.
41:26But as you also heard, if they don't, we're not standing down.
41:33The President a short time ago just said that, on camera, the information is not classified
41:38that he said it was shared. Do you believe that the President is lying directly, considering
41:43he wasn't on the call, and then following up, if the President said that the information
41:47shared was not classified, should the journalist who received the information be compelled
41:52now to share that information publicly? I mean, according to him, it's not classified
41:57or be compelled to, without repercussions.
42:00I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night. There is no way in the world you
42:06can plan a military operation with airstrikes and have that not be classified to some level.
42:12It is absolutely absurd that they would think that anybody with any understanding of any
42:18of this would fall for that.
42:20If I may, so I sat on principals' committee meetings and dozens of meetings at the White
42:27House, and this is secret information. It's probably TS information. This is inbound aircraft
42:36timetables before American personnel are in harm's way over Yemen. So it's classified.
42:47There's no doubt about it. A private can tell you it's classified information.
42:56Just one more.
42:57Can you expand on what holding your colleagues to account looks like?
43:02Well, I don't think there's any bounds to that. We're going to do whatever we can to
43:06ensure that American military personnel are safe and that our missions are protected,
43:14and we'll do everything we can to make sure that that happens.
43:17If I may. But also, this is more than just members of Congress. I know we're up here
43:23talking about this. This is, like I said, the mothers and fathers whose sons and daughters
43:27whose lives were in jeopardy because of this breach. They need to hold their representatives
43:32accountable so that their representatives then basically actually have the courage to
43:36step up like we are up here and hold basically our Secretary of Defense and our military
43:40leaders accountable for this reckless breach.
43:44Thank you very much.