During remarks on the Senate floor Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about the Trump Administration's leak of confidential war plans in a group chat that accidentally included a civilian reporter.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Earlier today, The Atlantic Magazine released a stunning and alarming report
00:06about the accidental leaking of the Trump administration's coordination on
00:11classified military operations targeting the Houthis in Yemen. According to the
00:17report, a member of the press was somehow added to an unsecured text chain with
00:24the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, the CIA
00:30director, and other national security officials. The text chain was not a
00:37secure conversation. The app used is not approved for discussing classified
00:45military operations. Nevertheless, on this text chain, conversations went at length
00:52about imminent military operations, including specific targets, weapons, and
00:58attack plans. These text messages very likely included classified US
01:04intelligence. And the entire time, nobody seemed to realize that a private citizen
01:11without security clearance had access to this conversation. Mr. President, this is
01:19one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about
01:23in a very, very long time. What we have here are senior US leaders, including the
01:30Vice President and Secretary of Defense, having classified discussions of
01:35military action over an unsecure app. It's bad enough that a private citizen
01:43was added to this chain, but it's far worse that sensitive military
01:48information was exchanged on an unauthorized application, especially when
01:55that sensitive military information was so, so important. If these detailed
02:02exchanges about coordinating military operations fell into the hands of
02:06America's enemies, it could get people killed. It could severely harm our
02:12military. It would put America's national security in danger. This
02:20debacle requires a full investigation into how this happened, the damage it
02:28created, and how we can avoid it in the future. If our nation's military secrets
02:35are being peddled around over unsecured text chains, we need to know that at once,
02:40and we need to put a stop to it immediately. Every single senator,
02:47Republican and Democrat and Independent, must demand accountability. If
02:54a government employee shared sensitive military plans like
02:59this, they'd be investigated and face very harsh consequences. Again, this kind
03:06of carelessness is how people get killed. It's how our enemies can take
03:10advantage of us. It's how our national security falls into danger. If you were
03:16up in arms over unsecure emails years ago, you
03:23should certainly be outraged by this amateurish behavior. I asked that Leader
03:29Thune and my Republican colleagues work with Democrats right away to hold a full
03:36investigation into why these military operations were coordinated over an
03:40unauthorized messaging service instead of the secure communications channels
03:47funded by taxpayers. And I want to finish with this. When Pete Hegseth became
03:53before the Senate as a nominee, Democrats warned that something like this might
03:58happen. These people are clearly not up for the job. We warned confirming them
04:05was dangerous, that they'd behave recklessly. Unfortunately, we were right.
04:11Now we must have accountability and both parties in the Senate should
04:16investigate how this blunder was even possible.