U.S. Democrats are calling for an investigation into a security oversight by top Republican officials that allowed a journalist access to confidential military plans on an unsecured app.
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00:00Deny.
00:01Nobody was texting war plans.
00:05Plead ignorance.
00:06I know nothing about it. You're saying that they had what?
00:09Evaluate.
00:10We have taken a step back.
00:13A spectrum of responses from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration
00:17after reports that a journalist was given access to a group chat
00:21that the nation's highest national security officials were using to plan military action.
00:27Writing in The Atlantic, Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg
00:32said he was mistakenly added into a group on the messaging app Signal earlier in the month.
00:37Among its members, Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth,
00:42the latter apparently texting details of an attack in Yemen two hours before bombs began exploding.
00:49Part of Trump's ongoing campaign against Houthi rebels
00:53over the group's attacks against cargo ships in the Red Sea.
00:58But despite the evidence, including screenshots from Goldberg,
01:02Hegseth has been quick to try and discredit his claims.
01:06You're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist
01:12who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.
01:17The oversight has ignited a storm of criticism from across the political spectrum,
01:22with top Democrats demanding a full investigation into the blunder
01:26and calling out the officials involved for gross incompetence.
01:30Though I will note that the Secretary of Defense who was on that chain
01:37has got to be the most unqualified person ever to lead the Pentagon in American history.
01:46Signal, the commercial messaging app hosting the group chat,
01:50has not been approved by the U.S. government for sharing sensitive information.
01:55If found to have taken place outside of secure channels,
01:58the conversation could violate the Espionage Act.
02:01Despite the controversy, the White House has been celebrating the attacks on the Houthis
02:06as highly successful and effective,
02:09paying little mind to what Democrats are calling the most stunning breach of military intelligence.
02:15John Su and Reese Ayres for Taiwan Plus.