Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) argued that the Trump administration’s defense in the aftermath of its Signal group chat leak “doesn’t pass the smell test.”
Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, joined CNN’s Kasie Hunt on Wednesday, where he was asked about the fallout from The Atlantic releasing information received by Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg that showed officials speaking about an attack plan for Yemen’s Houthi rebels in a group chat.
“I don’t think they’re telling the truth, and it doesn’t pass the smell test,” Warner said in response to officials claiming no classified information had been revealed.
Warner argued that the information revealed in Goldberg’s first article, which showed Vice President Vance questioning President Trump’s awareness of the plan, is a rare glimpse into how Vance is breaking from the president over certain issues and a good sign for the country’s adversaries.
Vance told the group of other administration officials, which included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz, that he thought the team was making a mistake but was willing to support the group’s consensus. He said he wasn’t sure Trump knew how inconsistent the attack was with his message on Europe.
“Let me give you the two pieces of this that are so obvious, the policy dispute between the vice president and the president, and the back-and-forth,” Warner said. “That’s the kind of information that intelligence services, literally Russia and China, would kill for. Having that kind of exposure to private conversations.”
Warner said what was even more troubling was the specifics of the Houthi attack, released in a second round of reporting Wednesday that detailed the location, time and weapons used for the strike.
He also noted it was concerning that the administration was bushing off the messages about classified information. The White House and top Trump allies have sought to hamper the widespread concern about the attack details being shared via Signal and claimed no classified material was shared.
“Anybody who denies that is either ignorant or trying to obfuscate,” Warner claimed.
He later added how “almost daily” there is information leaking from the Trump administration, either from “ignorance or malfeasance from the [Department of Government Efficiency] guys.”
“This administration’s careless, sloppy towards classified and frankly, Americans’ private information, is rank and compromise,” Warner said.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
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