Chrissy Houlihan Directly Confronts John Ratcliffe, Tulsi Gabbard Over Use Of Signal

2 days ago

At Wednesday's House Intel Committee hearing, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) pressed CIA Director John Ratcliffe and DNI Tulsi Gabbard about the use of Signal.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you for the time, and I struggle, and if you look at my notes, I've changed my mind

00:05about a million times what I'd like to talk about.

00:07I'd like to first start with Director Radcliffe.

00:09I find it offensive for you to accuse me, as a Democrat, of not caring about national

00:16threats.

00:17I very much wanted to talk about those, in fact had prepared questions in advance of

00:22this hearing about those threats, specifically about biosecurity and bioterrorism, but I

00:27don't have time to ask those questions, because the threat is in the House.

00:33The threat is across the dais, and I need to ask these questions.

00:36It's my job to ask these questions of you, because when I served in the military, and

00:42I served in classified environments, had this happened to me, I would have walked my resignation

00:48in immediately.

00:50This is not okay.

00:52Communicating these sorts of things in signal is not okay.

00:55Targets, times, those kinds of things are absolutely classified, and we all know it.

01:01I know it.

01:02These people know it.

01:04You all know it, and the fact that we're having to have these conversations now means that

01:08I can't ask the questions that I need to ask about things like bioterrorism and biosecurity,

01:14and so I'd like to put you in check as well, sir, because you can't assume who I am any

01:19more than I can assume who you are, sir.

01:22I would like to move my questions, however, over to Director Gabbard, because you are

01:27the DNI.

01:29You do have an obligation and a responsibility.

01:32I'm going to speak to you specifically about the fact that you have spent much of your

01:3740 days talking about the importance of making sure that we don't reveal classified information,

01:44making sure that we don't leak information.

01:47You're a former battalion commander in the Army.

01:49I don't think that you would have necessarily appreciated the kind of leaking of information

01:54that I believe absolutely did happen in this signal channel and is worthy of a further

01:58investigation.

01:59In fact, this committee established something called 50 U.S.C. 3235A, and this committee,

02:06on a bipartisan, apartisan basis, requires you, the DNI, to swiftly notify Congress and

02:13the Intelligence Committee if you're aware of any sort of significant unauthorized disclosure

02:17or compromise of classified information, which I would argue this has all of the markings

02:22of being that.

02:23And so if you, as the DNI, see such a thing anywhere within your organization's purview,

02:29you have the obligation to begin an investigation to report back to us on that.

02:34Would this seem to qualify to you as something worthy of that investigation?

02:40Thank you for your question, Congresswoman.

02:42In this situation, Secretary Hegseth has the classification and declassification authority

02:50over DoD information.

02:52This chat did not have the auspice of being a DoD chat.

02:55There's no such thing as labeling it as DoD.

02:58This was a chat amongst a great variety of people, and you, according to our law that

03:03we passed here bipartisanly, have an obligation, when you think there has been a tangible significant

03:09leak of information to instigate an investigation, do you not think it's important to do such

03:14a thing?

03:15Well, the National Security Council is investigating this inadvertent leak, and again, I point

03:20to Secretary Hegseth as having the classification and declassification authority.

03:23I would argue that Secretary Hegseth, if he had the dignity that he needs to have, should

03:27be walking his resignation in, because I believe that his probably is heading toward being

03:31relieved of his duty based on what I think are significant and illegal leaks, most likely.

03:37I would like it if you would please commit to this organization that you will follow

03:41the law, and I would like it if you would also investigate what is likely to be more

03:45than just this chat, because if there's one, there's more than one.

03:49If there's smoke, there's fire.

03:51Would you please obligate yourself and your organization to that investigation?

03:54Yeah.

03:55Congresswoman, yes, I will follow the law.

03:58I appreciate that.

03:59And Director Patel, I learned just recently that you only heard about this yesterday,

04:02which blows my mind, since I heard about it two days ago, and I'm just a low on the

04:06dais junior chipmunk here.

04:09Did you really only hear about this yesterday?

04:11The exact timeline, I'm not aware of, but yeah, I think it was yesterday or the night

04:15before.

04:16And now that another day has passed, do you believe-

04:17Well, actually, it was the night before the hearing.

04:19Now that another day has passed, do you believe that it's now time, potentially, for the FBI

04:23to open an investigation into this?

04:24I'm not going to comment on that.

04:26Because you're the director of the FBI, you don't believe it's appropriate to comment

04:30on that?

04:31Because there's a process in place, there's an ongoing litigation, and the National Security

04:33Council is reviewing this matter, and I'm not going to discuss any open or closed investigation.

04:38That ongoing investigation, literally, the lawsuit happened today or yesterday afternoon,

04:43and the idea that you don't have an opinion on this at this point is frustrating to me.

04:46No, it's not.

04:47I'm not going to prejudge any matters, and the men and women of the FBI will call the

04:51balls and strikes.

04:52Reclaiming my time.

04:53Reclaiming my time, sir.

04:54Not you.

04:55Sir, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to have-

04:56Gentleman's recognized.

04:58You have four seconds remaining.

04:59No, I have more than that.

05:00You have two seconds remaining.

05:02Gentleman's time has expired.

05:03Mr. Stubbe.

Chrissy Houlihan Directly Confronts John Ratcliffe, Tulsi Gabbard Over Use Of Signal

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