Jason Crow Says Pete Hegseth 'Must Resign Immediately' Following Leaked Signal Chat

2 days ago

At a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) called on Sec. Pete Hegseth to resign following the leak of a Signal chat with war plans against the Houthis in Yemen.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Chairman. General Hawk, the NSA recently warned its employees not to use the

00:06Signal app. Is that correct? What we did, Congressman, is we put out cybersecurity advisories

00:15on a whole host of systems. On the Signal app that was included in that advisory, right?

00:22What we've done is we've put out an advisory on how to use the Signal app and other encrypted

00:27applications because we do encourage our employees and their families to use it. Because there's

00:31risk to that app? There are. Okay. General Cruz, DOD also issued a warning about vulnerabilities

00:41to the Signal app recently, correct? That's correct. Director Gabbard, you were on the

00:47Signal text chain in question, correct? Yes. As was Mr. Whitcoff, the administration's

00:55lead negotiator with the Russians, correct? Yes. And at the time, Mr. Whitcoff was actually

01:01in Russia during this chat discussion, was he not? I was not aware of that. Was he on

01:10his personal phone at the time? I don't know. Well, it's my understanding that he was indeed

01:14in Russia. Director Gabbard, you were also traveling during this discussion, correct?

01:20Yes. And where were you? I was traveling through the Asia Pacific region. I don't recall

01:26which country I was in at that time. You don't remember the country? I'd have to go back

01:31and look at the schedule. Director Gabbard, I want to direct your attention again to the

01:38text chain where it says, just confirmed with CENTCOM, we are a go for mission launch. Does

01:48that indicate to you that there is about to be a military operation? Yes. Director

01:54Gabbard, earlier in this hearing, we heard about the DOD's classification standards.

02:00I want to now turn my attention to your classification standards. You're the Director of National

02:05Intelligence. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence Classification Guide

02:10says, quote, information providing indication or advance warning that the U.S. or its allies

02:16are preparing for an attack, end quote, is to be classified as top secret. Are you familiar

02:20with that? Yes. Director Gabbard, have the Houthis indicated an ability to shoot down

02:29American aircraft? Yes. They have, in fact, done so, haven't they? Yes. Including MQ-9

02:35Reapers, haven't they? That's correct. And that was one of the systems used in the attack

02:39recently. That's the subject of this discussion. Is it not? Correct. General Cruz, are you

02:47familiar with this system? I'm not wearing my glasses at the moment. I'll help you out.

02:53This is an SA-3 anti-aircraft system. Correct. Are you familiar with this next system? I

03:05am. What is it? I'm going to have to ask you. It's an SA-6. I'm going to guess. This

03:14is also an advanced anti-aircraft system, is it not? It was used widely in the Balkans

03:20in the 90s, correct. And the Houthis also have this system, don't they? They certainly

03:24do. And they've employed it against our aircraft, have they not? They have attempted to, correct.

03:34I spent my life in service to this country. I deployed three times to combat in service

03:39to this nation. I learned in that time in service that responsibility is core to leadership.

03:48You accept responsibility when things go wrong. You admit mistakes. You set the standard from

03:54the very top. It is completely outrageous to me, completely outrageous to me, that administration

04:01officials come before us today with impunity, no acceptance of responsibility, excuse after

04:10excuse after excuse, while we send our men and women downrange to do incredibly difficult,

04:17incredibly dangerous things on our behalf. And yet nobody is willing to come to us and

04:22say this was wrong. This was a breach of security and we won't do it again. It is outrageous

04:29and it is a leadership failure. And that's why Secretary Hegseth, who undoubtedly transmitted

04:35classified sensitive operational information via this chain, must resign immediately. There

04:44can be no fixes. There can be no corrections until there is accountability. And I'm calling

04:49on the administration to move forward with accountability. I yield back.

Jason Crow Says Pete Hegseth 'Must Resign Immediately' Following Leaked Signal Chat

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