Donald Trump downplays Yemen war plans Signal group chat; lawmakers grill Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe over texts

Washington – On Tuesday, President Donald Trump reduced the text messages of sensitive plans for a military strike against the Yemeni Houthis this month to a group chat that included a journalist, saying that it was “the only two months in two months” of his administration as Democratic lawmakers licensed cash on the administration in order to deal with very sensitive information.

Trump told NBC News that the separator “turned out to be not dangerous”, and expressed his continuous support for National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.

Waltz appears, according to an article published by The Atlantic on the Internet on Monday, has mistakenly added the editor -in -chief of the magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a chat that included 18 senior administration officials discussing planning for the strike.

“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, a good man,” Trump said. He also seemed to blame the unveiled assistant, who was not named for Goldberg, who was added to the series. “Michael’s resident was on the phone. The employee had his number there.”

However, the use of the messaging application signal to discuss a sensitive process has opened the administration to stir criticism from democratic lawmakers who expressed their anger at the insistence of administration officials at the White House and senior insistence that no secret information was shared. The senior administration officials struggled to explain the reason for using the audience’s application to discuss such a sensitive issue.

Waltz creates his first public comments

Al -Fals said on Tuesday that he was not sure how Goldberg finished chatting.

Waltz said: “This is in particular, I have never met, I don’t know, he did not communicate with him,” Waltz said.

Later on Tuesday, Waltz said in his appearance on “The Ingraham Angle” of Fox News that he built the series of messages and that the White House technicians were trying to know how to absorb Goldberg’s connection.

“We made a mistake. We are moving forward,” Waltz said.

For his part, Trump continued to attack the Atlantic Ocean and Goldberg and send mixed messages about whether the administration would change how to share sensitive information to move forward.

See also: What is the reference, the application of the chat used by US officials to exchange attack plans?

“We will not use it much” in the future, “Trump said. “This is one of the prices you pay when you don’t sit in the position room without phones, which are always the best, frankly.”

“If it is up to me, then everyone will be sitting in a room together. The room will have solid leaders, main roof and lead.”

One of the officials in charge of the Signal Significance, Director of National Intelligence, Toulcy Gabbard, admitted during the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that she was traveling abroad during the exchange.

She did not say whether she was using her personal phone or the government’s issuance because the issue was under review by the National Security Council at the White House.

One of the Democrats calls the “embarrassment” error

Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who was also participating in the exchange of signals, and also witnessed in the intelligence session on Tuesday, faced blatant criticism from the legislators.

“Director Ratcliffe, this was a big mistake, right?” Senator John Osov, a Georgia Democrat, asked.

After a short stop, Ratcliv shook his head. “No,” he said.

Ratcliffe tried to intervene when Ossoff asked for a follow -up question, prompting the two men to talk about each other.

“This is embarrassing,” Osov said. “This is completely unprofessional. There was no apology. There was no recognition of the seriousness of this error.”

In the period before his 2016 electoral victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump urged the criminal prosecution of the former Foreign Minister to communicate with the information classified with its assistants on a special email server that established it. The matter was investigated, but the FBI finally recommended the charges. None of them was brought.

Clinton was among the Democrats this week to criticize the use of Trump administration officials for reference.

“You must joke with me,” Clinton said at the X Publishing, which highlighted the Atlantic article and includes the eyes of the emojis.

Trump has also faced charges of poor information classified in his resort in Mar-A-Lago after the first White House. These charges were later rejected.

The administration says that Democrats should not be angry

But on Tuesday, senior administration officials insisted that democratic anger was misplaced.

Ratcliffe and Gabgard told legislators that no secret information was included in the texts about the American attack plans in the series of messages.

but I mentioned the Atlantic Ocean The messages included accurate information about weapons packages, targets and timing, but they did not publish these details.

Click on whether this information should be classified, Gabbard hedge. “The Minister of Defense, the National Security Council, was postponed on this question,” she said.

Ratcliffe said on one of the stock exchange with legislators that Defense Minister Beit Higseth carries power to determine whether the information in the series of messages is classified.

HegSeth in the comments hours after the published Atlantic story did not answer the questions about whether the information messages series was classified.

“No one was sending plans for war and this is all I should say about that,” Higseth said in an exchange with journalists on Monday at the beginning of a trip to the Indian Pacific Ocean.

Democrats retreated, saying that the leaked military plans show a dirty disregard for security, but Ratcliffe insisted on not violating rules.

“My clear contacts in the reference messages set were completely permitted and boycott and did not include secret information,” Ratcliffe told the project of legislators at the session, which was supposed to focus on global security threats.

In the face of hot questions from Democratic Senator Mark Warner from Virginia, Gabbard said there was a difference between “unintended” versions of intentional information and leaks. “There were no secret materials shared,” said Gabbard.

Nevertheless, Warner said that the security break could cost life.

“If this information comes out, American life cannot be lost. If the Houthis have this information, they can re -put their defense systems,” Warner said.

In his appearance on Fox, Al -Falas said that although all the information on the stock exchange was not classified, it is preferable to stay outside the eyes of the audience. “I definitely want our deliberations to remain confidential,” he said.

An investigation

In response to questions from Democratic Senator Ron Wadeen from Oregon, Gabbard and Ratcliftel said that they will participate in reviewing accounts looking for management officials for reference. Widan said he should be investigated.

“I see that there should be a resignation,” said Widan.

The FBI director, Cash Patel, who appeared with Ratcliffe and Gabard at the session, said he had not recently been informed of the chat issue and had no update on whether the FBI opened an investigation. Warner requested an update at the end of the day.

In a statement on Tuesday, the White House described the UPROAR as “a coordinated effort to distract from the successful measures taken by President Trump and his administration to make America’s enemies pay and maintain safe Americans.”

Signal security examination

The sign is an application that can be used for direct messages and group conversations, as well as phone and video calls. The encryption is used from one side to a party for messaging and communication services that prevent any third party from displaying conversation content or listening to calls.

In other words, the messages and calls sent on the signal are reduced; Only the sender and the recipient at each end will have the key to deciphering their symbols.

Open source signaling protocol, which means that it is available for any person to inspect, use or modify. The encryption protocol is also used by another famous chat service, which is the WhatsApp platform for Meta Meta.

Government officials used a signal of organizational correspondence, such as scheduling sensitive meetings.

Senator Angus King, Main Independent, said he felt annoyed by the confirmation of Ratcliffe and Gabbard that no secret information was included in the chat.

“It is difficult for me to believe that the targets, timing and weapons will not be classified,” he said.

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AP Kelvin Chan writer in London and Darlain Superville contributed to the reports.