During remarks on the House floor Tuesday, Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) spoke about Trump Administration's response to top level cabinet members leaking war plans to a reporter in a Signal chat.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. Speaker, I rise with deep shock, concern, and outrage at the carelessness of the Trump
00:11administration in disclosing highly sensitive operational military plans on a commercial
00:17chat platform that included a reporter.
00:21Without a doubt, this reckless incompetence put our servicewomen and men in danger.
00:28Last week, I received a call from a constituent whose son is deployed abroad in the region.
00:34His son's mission was personally put at risk by the very same people charged with safeguarding
00:41our armed forces who put their lives on the line for us.
00:45This Arizona father and his son sacrificed for our country, and we should all be ashamed
00:51that this is how their service is repaid.
00:54The Trump administration officials who set up and participated in this signal chat debacle
01:00should have taken responsibility for their egregious mistake and instantly offered their
01:06resignation for having violated the law, contravened common sense, and put American troops in harm's way.
01:14Let me put it this way.
01:16Not only did the national security advisor set up an illegal, unsecured chat with the
01:22Secretary of Defense, the CIA Director, the Vice President, and others to discuss highly,
01:29highly sensitive and imminent attack plans, but they also bungled their way into adding
01:35a random person into the chat.
01:37We should not be surprised in the slightest that the Trump administration treats our nation's
01:42secrets this way.
01:44This is the same man, after all, who had our nuclear code sitting in his bathroom in Mar-a-Lago.
01:51The way that the administration has handled this entire calamity has been equally as dangerous.
01:58Secretary of Defense Hegseth straight up lied.
02:01He said there was no classified information on the chat, that he didn't share attack plans,
02:07that no troops were put in harm's way.
02:10And then there's our Director of National Intelligence, who is supposedly our nation's
02:14most trusted, meticulous secret keeper, who went before the Senate to mislead, evade,
02:21and perjure herself.
02:23What a truly disgraceful episode.
02:26This is not a partisan issue.
02:29In fact, both the chair and ranking member of the Senate Armed Service Committee, in
02:34a bipartisan manner, requested that the Pentagon investigate the use of the Signal app to share
02:40classified information.
02:42We can all agree that no government employee, let alone a cabinet member, should be sharing
02:48classified information in a Signal chat, and be careless enough to add a reporter to it
02:54as well.
02:55There should be a serious after-action review to prevent this from ever happening again,
03:02and one that considers the criminality involved.
03:05And yet another Trump lackey, our Attorney General, who is officially supposed to be
03:10the people's lawyer, is ruling out a criminal investigation into the scheme altogether.
03:17These are the same people that spent the better part of a decade looking into Hillary's emails.
03:25They evidently do not care to even pretend to investigate how our nation's most secret
03:32information was being shared.
03:34The ramifications of this unmitigated disaster will be felt for years, even decades to come.
03:41Why would any of our allies share sensitive information with us if the Secretary of Defense
03:47is just going to pop it in a group chat and share it with the editor-in-chief of a national
03:52publication?
03:54In conjunction with all of the other actions the Trump administration has taken to dismiss
03:59or turn our backs on our allies, I am deeply concerned about how Signalgate will make us
04:05much, much less safe in the long term.
04:09Our nation deserves better.
04:10Our servicewomen and men deserve better.
04:13We deserve better.
04:15I yield back.