Chrissy Houlahan Demands Officials Be ‘Held Accountable’ For ‘Colossal Screwup’ Of Group Chat Leak

3/27/2025

During a press briefing on the Signal group chat leak on Tuesday, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) called for an investigation into the Signal group chat leak detailing war plans amongst Trump officials.

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00:00Congresswoman Huland, excuse me.

00:02No worries.

00:04And thank you very much for organizing this and this opportunity to reiterate what has already been said.

00:11When I was a little girl, when I was 10 years old, I lived in Annandale, Virginia.

00:15My dad was the Navy person responsible to Secretary Brown, Secretary of Defense Brown.

00:21Under his bed, my father's bed, was a red phone.

00:24I was instructed as a 10-year-old, never, ever, under any circumstances, do I touch or pick up that phone.

00:30Because that was the way that they were able to communicate back in 1970-whatever,

00:34to make sure that they could have conversations, active conversations.

00:38Fast forward to the 80s when I was an active duty lieutenant myself and spent the bulk of my career in a skiff.

00:44Having learned all of the different ways that you manage classified information and don't manage classified information,

00:49if I had done this as a junior officer, I would have absolutely marched myself into my colonel's office and resigned on the spot.

00:56In addition, I would have expected to be sent to jail.

00:59So Pete Hexeth, Mike Waltz, Marco Rubio, I mean, listen to this list, Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel,

01:04and every other Trump administration official who uses signal for war planning and mission execution

01:10has to be held to account for their stunning incompetence and their intentional clear defiance.

01:15So that's what we are all doing here today.

01:17We want to make sure that the hearing is called.

01:20We expect, frankly, that no hearing will be called, and so that we will have to at some point escalate this.

01:25But for either this group of Cavalier officials, this group of Cavalier officials does not grasp the danger that they have put our nation in.

01:32If they don't grasp that, they just don't care.

01:35So either way, whether they care or don't care, know or don't understand, this is a colossal screw-up,

01:41and they need to be accountable for that.

01:43So the issue for the administration is not to address.

01:46We talked about some red herrings, how a reporter got added to a signal chat.

01:50That's a complete red herring.

01:52Although the gaslighting currently underway from the president and the National Security Council themselves,

01:57that's what they're trying to fool you with.

01:59I can tell you exactly what happened.

02:01We all used signal.

02:02Accidentally Mike Waltz typed in somebody's name, and he got added to the chat.

02:07And the rest is, as they say, history.

02:09And it's history because we now have the receipts.

02:12We can now, thanks to the Atlantic's reporter, have the magic of screenshots.

02:17And so if we're being told that there is nothing to see here and that none of this is classified

02:22and that no information was shared on an unsecured or unapproved communication platform that was classified,

02:28then that's just fine.

02:29Then show us the money.

02:31Show us the receipts.

02:32Don't edit it.

02:33Don't redact it.

02:34Don't disappear it.

02:35Release it, and release it right now.

02:38But we know they won't do that either.

02:40They're lying about what happened because it was reckless, because it was probably illegal.

02:44They're covering for themselves and for others.

02:46They're gaslighting us here in the Congress, you here in the audience, everybody back home.

02:50The same people who have spent months, and in some cases years,

02:53pursuing leaks and classified information and promised forms of legal retribution

02:58are now tightening their own ranks and closing their own ranks.

03:02So who gets hurt when that happens?

03:04We've talked about it a little bit.

03:06Men and women in uniform get hurt and possibly die.

03:09And the fact that nobody did die apparently right now is just an accident of chance and luck.

03:14So we, the American people, and us, the members of Congress,

03:17we owe ourselves a level of accountability, and we call for an investigation now.

03:23It is my privilege to introduce a fellow colleague, also from the Armed Services and Intel Committee,

03:30as well, Representative Jason Crow of Colorado.

Chrissy Houlahan Demands Officials Be ‘Held Accountable’ For ‘Colossal Screwup’ Of Group Chat Leak

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