CIA Head Has Shocking Answer When Asked if Group Chat Was “Mistake”

CIA Director John Ratcliffe flailed Tuesday when asked one simple question about the Trump administration’s major national security scandal.

During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Ratcliffe and other intelligence officials faced tough questions about a Signal chat Cabinet members used to discuss sensitive details of a plan to bomb Houthis in Yemen earlier this month—which accidentally included The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.

Unlike the more reticent Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Ratcliffe dove straight off a sinking ship and readily admitted to participating in the group chat. He insisted that the CIA was permitted to use Signal.

But Ratcliffe crumbled when asked a straightforward question by Senator Jon Ossoff.

“Director Ratcliffe, this was a huge mistake, correct?” the Georgia Democrat asked.

There was a silence before Ratcliffe responded, shaking his head. “No,” he said.

There was another long silence in the chamber as Ratcliffe’s answer started to sink in. It seemed Ratcliffe wanted so badly not to be in trouble that, somehow, including a journalist in sensitive discussions of strike plans wasn’t even a mistake? At once, Ossoff continued, and Ratcliffe attempted to make sense of his unbelievably poor response.

“A national political rep—no, no you hold on,” Ossoff said, over Ratcliffe’s pleas of, “Hold on, let me answer!”

“No, no Director Ratcliffe, I asked a simple yes or no question, and now you hold on,” Ossoff said. “A national political reporter was made privy to sensitive information about imminent military operations against a foreign terrorist organization, and that wasn’t a huge mistake? That wasn’t a huge mistake?”

As Ossoff spoke, Ratcliffe continued to limply defend himself. “You can characterize it how you want,” Ratcliffe said of the “inadvertent mistake of adding a reporter.”

“I think that they characterized it as a mistake,” Ratcliffe finally said, defeated.

“This is an embarrassment. This is utterly unprofessional. There’s been no apology. There has been no recognition of the gravity of this error. And by the way, we will get the full transcript of this chain, and your testimony will be measured carefully against its content,” Ossoff said.

During Thursday’s hearing, Gabbard insisted that there had been no classified information sent in the group chat, though Goldberg reported that there had been information that, if “read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility.”

Senator Michael Bennet and CIA Director John Ratcliffe got into an intense back-and-forth over how exactly the editor in chief of The Atlantic got added to a Signal chat in which top defense leaders were debating an attack on the Houthis in Yemen.

“Please answer the question, don’t … insult the intelligence of the American people,” Bennet said at a Senate hearing on security threats on Tuesday. “Did [Goldberg] invite himself to the Signal thread?”

“I don’t know how he was invited, but clearly—” Ratcliffe said before being interrupted.

“Clearly it was?” Bennet said. “Finish your sentence please.”

“Clearly he was added to the Signal group, your question is—”

“So you don’t know that the president’s national security adviser invited [Goldberg] to join the Signal thread? Everybody in America knows that. Does the CIA director not know that?”

“I’ve seen conflicting reports about who added the reporter to the Signal messaging group,” Ratfcliffe waffled.

“You think that it’s perfectly appropriate that there was a reporter added—especially one that the secretary of defense says is ‘deceitful, highly discredited, a so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes over and over again’—is your testimony that it was appropriate that he was added to this Signal thread?”

“No, of course not,” Ratcliffe replied.

“Why did you not—”

“Now hold on Senator, you are mischaracterizing my testimony—”

“You answered the question, let me ask you. When he was added to the thread—you’re the CIA director! Why didn’t you call out that he was present on the Signal thread?”

“I don’t know if you use Signal messaging app—”

“I do! Not for classified information. Not for targeting.”

“Well neither do, I, Senator, neither do I, Senator.”

“Well that’s what your testimony is today!”

“It absolutely is not, Senator, were you not listening at the beginning when I said that I was using it as permitted, and it is permissible to use.”

Ratcliffe went on to insist that the contents of the Signal were not classified—which is hard to believe given the country’s leaders were discussing attack plans on a privately owned third-party messaging app that is not approved for defense officials to use. But apparently this is the story the Trump administration is going with.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s ill-advised Signal chat planning an attack on Yemen went against a Pentagon warning from last week, and even Department of Defense regulations.

According to NPR, a department-wide email went out last week warning everyone in the DOD that a vulnerability was detected in the Signal messaging app, which Hegseth, along with several other administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, used to discuss bombing Houthi targets in Yemen.

Specifically, the email stated that “Russian professional hacking groups are employing the ‘linked devices’ features to spy on encrypted conversations,” and noted that Google identified Russian hacking groups “targeting Signal Messenger to spy on persons of interest.”

As head of the DOD, Hegseth would have undoubtedly received that email. Even if he missed it, or habitually lets his work emails pile up, he should have known that using Signal for government business is an explicit violation of DOD regulations. This raises the question as to whether Hegseth and other officials were using Signal to avoid leaving records of their communications.

“Unmanaged ‘messaging apps,’ including any app with a chat feature, regardless of the primary function, are not authorized to access, transmit, process non-public DoD information. This includes but is not limited to messaging, gaming, and social media apps. (i.e., iMessage, WhatsApps, Signal),” a 2023 department memo states.

Will Hegseth, or any of the other senior government officials in the chat group, who include Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and national security adviser Mike Waltz, face any accountability for using Signal to conduct national security operations, let alone any government business? Aside from violating DOD regulations, the chat may likely have been illegal.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard absolutely—and accidentally—shredded Donald Trump’s phony reason for placing steep tariffs on Canada.

During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday, Gabbard presented the Annual Threat Assessment, or ATA, about the dangers state and nonstate actors pose to the United States. In her opening statement, Gabbard emphasized the presence of foreign cartels and illicit drug trafficking as the most dire threat to national security—but notably didn’t mention Canada at all.

Canada’s absence in the report presents a stark contradiction to the Trump administration’s insistence that drug trafficking across the northern border presents a major threat to Americans. Trump has cited this excuse as part of his rationale for levying 25 percent tariffs on Canadian exports.

Senator Martin Heinrich asked Gabbard to explain why she hadn’t mentioned Canada in her report.

“Is the [Intelligence Community] wrong in its omission of Canada as a source of illicit fentanyl in the ATA? I was surprised, given some of the rhetoric, that there is no mention of Canada in the ATA,” the New Mexico Democrat pressed.

“Senator, the focus in my opening and the ATA was really to focus on the most extreme threats in that area. And our assessment is that the most extreme threat related to fentanyl continues to come from and through Mexico,” Gabbard replied.

“So, the president has stated that the fentanyl coming through Canada is massive, and actually said it was an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” and that was the language that was used to justify putting tariffs on Canada,” Heinrich said. “I’m just trying to reconcile those two issues. Is it an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” or is it a minor threat that doesn’t even merit mention in the Annual Threat Assessment?”

Gabbard said she couldn’t speak to the “specifics” of the threat posed by Canadian fentanyl trafficking.

Heinrich assured her that it accounted for “less than 1 percent” of the fentanyl seized by the U.S. government. “But if you have different information, I would very much welcome that,” he said.

The Trump administration has repeatedly referred to a terrifying 2,000 percent increase in drug trafficking over the U.S.-Canada border in the last year. But the reality is much less thrilling.

In 2023, only two pounds of fentanyl were seized at the northern border, and a total of 43 pounds of fentanyl were seized in 2024, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. As one NBC News reporter pointed out, that’s still “less than a carry-on suitcase.”

Trump’s border czar just confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is detaining innocent people.

Tom Homan was asked on Fox Business Tuesday morning about whether ICE would be providing the city of Boston with information regarding the 370 people it said it arrested over the last week in the city.

“Tom, will you share information with the mayor on those arrested?” the host asked Homan.

“We never hide anything. I can tell you that their city’s safer.… It’s safer now because [of the] actions of ICE.… We arrested 370 illegal aliens in Boston and the surrounding counties, not just Boston,” Homan said. “Majority of them were criminals. We had, you know, numerous collateral arrests. And I’ve said it before on this show and I’ll keep sayin’ it: Collateral arrests are gon’ be … people who aren’t criminals that are found when we’re lookin’ for the criminal are gonna be taken into custody.”

This is a significant admission that tracks well with the administration’s recent detainments: indiscriminate kidnappings and extraditions of hundreds of Latino men on shaky allegations of gang tattoos. Trump always knew his massive criminal deportation crackdown promises were overambitious, so he’s drawing innocent people into the crossfire as he alleges all of ICE’s targets are rapists and terrorists—unsubstantiated claims that none of the detainees can defend because they won’t get a day in court.

Time will only tell who starts to get classified as a “collateral arrest” going forward.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard refused Tuesday to admit to her involvement in a major national security scandal. 

Trump administration officials used a Signal chat to discuss sensitive details of a plan to bomb Houthis in Yemen earlier this month—and accidentally added The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to join. 

Gabbard, who recently railed against leaks from the intelligence community, was reportedly one of the many high-ranking Cabinet officials in the group chat who lacked the basic due diligence to check the members of the group before spouting off about war plans.

During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday about global threats to the United States, Gabbard flatly refused to answer questions about her own role in threatening national security. 

“Director Gabbard, did you participate in the group chat with the secretary of defense and other Trump senior officials discussing the Yemen war plans?” Senator Mark Warner asked. 

Gabbard refused to answer. “Uh, Senator I don’t want to get into the specifics—” she replied, before being cut off by Warner. 

The Virginia Democrat continued to press Gabbard to answer. “You were not ‘TG’ on this group chat?” he asked, referring to the Signal screen name. Gabbard continued to insist she would not “get into specifics.”

“Why aren’t you gonna get into the specifics? Is this—is it because it’s all classified?” Warner asked.

“Because this is currently under review by the National Security Council,” Gabbard said. 

“Because it’s all classified? If it’s not classified, share the texts now,” Warner said. 

Warner then turned to CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who readily admitted to participating in the Signal group chat, claiming that its use was permitted under a Biden-era policy and insisted the platform was considered safe for use at the CIA, as long as the decisions made within the chat were recorded formally.  

Warner moved his attention back to Gabbard, asking whether she had requested a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, to discuss the strike plans. 

“There was no classified material that was shared in that Signal chat,” Gabbard said, suddenly more forthcoming. 

Her statement echoed that of White House, which claimed that not only were no classified materials shared but that no war plans were discussed. Much of the White House’s statement was false, and it also contradicted the National Security Council’s own prior statement confirming the legitimacy of the chat. 

“So, if there was no classified material, share it with the committee! You can’t have it both ways! These are important jobs! This is our national security,” Warner said. 

“Bobbing and weaving and trying to, you know, filibuster your answer—so please answer the question,” Warner said. “If this was a rank-and-file intelligence officer who did this kind of careless behavior, what would you do with them?”

“Senator, I’ll reiterate there was no classified material in that Signal—” Gabbard said, before being cut off. 

“And if there’s no classified materials, share! And then if there’s no classified materials, then answer—you can’t even answer the question whether you were on the chat,” Warner said, visibly frustrated.

He asked Gabbard what she planned to do if the information was, in fact, classified. She emphasized that there was a difference between the “inadvertent release” and “malicious leaks” of classified information, before restating that there was no classified material in the chat.

Will anyone in the Trump administration take their monumental national security leak seriously?

Administration officials were caught red-handed after The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed Monday they accidentally added him to a Signal chat earlier this month discussing sensitive details of a plan to bomb Houthis in Yemen.

When asked directly about the scandal on Monday, Donald Trump appeared bewildered and unaware, telling reporters at the White House that he knew “nothing about it.” But by Tuesday, Trump had a notably different response, openly joking about the misconduct.

In response to a post in which his billionaire adviser, Elon Musk, mocked The Atlantic by claiming that the second page of the publication is the “best place to hide a dead body,” on the basis that “no one ever goes there,” Trump shared an article by the satirical conservative rag The Babylon Bee.

“4D Chess: Genius Trump Leaks War Plans To ‘The Atlantic’ Where No One Will Ever See Them,” the headline reads.

The monumental slipup was a horrific omen for U.S. national security, whose weakest link is apparently a crew of Cabinet members who can’t accomplish the basic due diligence of double-checking who they’re adding to a group chat hosted by a private company.

Trump and Musk are just two of several heads of state that have attempted to undercut Goldberg’s report. So far, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt have also opted to deny, deny, deny the egregious error.

Regardless of whether the administration wants to confront what other former U.S. officials are lambasting as “the highest level of fuckup imaginable,” the existence of the group chat has already been verified. A spokesperson for the National Security Council, Brian Hughes, already confirmed to Goldberg that the chat was real.

The Social Security Administration has been crippled by cuts to the agency pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The Washington Post reports that employee cuts at the SSA have led to office managers at field offices being forced to answer phone calls at the front desk in place of fired receptionists. In addition, the agency’s website crashed four times in 10 days in March due to server overloads, preventing millions of retired people and the disabled from accessing their online accounts.

On top of that, the office that monitors whether people are satisfied with their service was also cut by DOGE, making it nearly impossible to figure out small ways to fix some, if any of the problems.

Unable to get answers from the SSA, Americans who depend on Social Security have flooded congressional offices with angry phone calls. The AARP says it has been getting 2,000 calls a week since early February, double its usual amount, from people concerned about their Social Security benefits.

The SSA is responsible for $1.5 trillion in benefits to 73 million retired workers, their survivors, and poor and disabled Americans, and now is struggling to deliver to these vulnerable groups. About 40 percent of older Americans depend on Social Security as their primary source of income.

At present, the agency is being run by acting Commissioner Leland Dudek, who has cut more than 12 percent of the SSA’s 57,000-person staff and says DOGE is calling the shots, despite a court order last week preventing Musk’s cronies from accessing the agency.

Dudek’s predecessor, Michelle King, quit her job as acting commissioner rather than hand over Americans’ sensitive personal information to DOGE. Still, Musk’s staffers have pressed on with their quest to find fraud in Social Security benefits, a problem that isn’t as extensive as they claim. Instead, their efforts have resulted in the people who depend on those benefits being shut out altogether.

Dudek and DOGE’s actions have caused chaos within the agency, pushing out experienced officials who were running the SSA’s complicated information technology and benefit systems. As a result, an agency that has been underfunded for years now is on the brink of being shut down, according to Dudek, who wasn’t happy with last week’s court order blocking DOGE from accessing Americans’ data.

Is all of this by design? Musk has called Social Security “the greatest Ponzi scheme of all time,” and conservatives have long sought to privatize the agency. One former agency veteran who took early retirement this month told the Post, “They’re creating a fire to require them to come and put it out.” If that is the goal, is there anything that can save one of America’s most successful anti-poverty programs?

Despite the evidence, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is still opting to attack and discredit the journalist who caught him red-handed in a seismic national security scandal.

“Can you share how your information about war plans against the Houthis in Yemen was shared with a journalist at The Atlantic? And were those details classified?” a reporter asked Hegseth as he disembarked from Air Force One in Hawaii Monday.

“So you are talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again,” Hegseth said, referring to coverage of the Mueller investigation as a conspiracy, or when Donald Trump said, in the wake of the 2017 Charlottesville white supremacist rally, that there were “some very fine people” on both sides.

“This is the guy that peddles in garbage,” Hegseth said, continuing to evade the questions.

Trump administration officials accidentally added The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a Signal chat regarding sensitive details of a plan to bomb Houthis in Yemen earlier this month. The monumental slipup was a horrific omen for U.S. national security, whose weakest link is apparently a crew of Cabinet members who can’t accomplish the basic due diligence of double-checking who they’re adding to a group chat hosted by a private company.

Hours later, Goldberg told MSNBC that Hegseth’s response was “flummoxing” to him.

“I haven’t seen this kind of unserious behavior before,” he told the network. “The secretary of defense, with all due respect, seems like a person who is unserious and is trying to deflect from the fact that he participated in a conversation on an unclassified messaging app that he probably shouldn’t have participated in.”

Like Hegseth, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt similarly opted to run the administration’s favorite defense strategy of deny, deny, deny.

In a statement Tuesday morning, Leavitt claimed that “no ‘war plans’ were discussed in the group chat and that ‘no classified material was sent to the thread,’” while disparaging Goldberg as a journalist “well-known for his sensationalist spin.”

But that old Trumpian tactic won’t work here—particularly since a spokesperson for the National Security Council, Brian Hughes, already confirmed to Goldberg that the chat was, indeed, real.

For all of the Trump administration’s “unseriousness” about the leak, though, some former government officials were taking it perfectly seriously.

“From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of fuckup imaginable,” posted former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “These people cannot keep America safe.”

The White House has decided to lie its way out.

Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt took to X on Tuesday to set the record straight on senior defense adviser Mike Waltz’s massive gaffe: adding Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor in chief, to a Signal group chat with himself, JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, and other high-ranking officials discussing the bombing of Yemen.

“Jeffrey Goldberg is well-known for his sensationalist spin,” Leavitt wrote, before going on to deny the story entirely

Much of Leavitt’s post is just false, and contradicts the National Security Council’s own prior statement. “At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” NSC spokesperson Brian Hughes said Monday. “The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security.”

Screenshots collected by Goldberg also clearly show the country’s top defense officials debating over how to carry out an attack on the Houthis—an attack that occurred days after the messages were sent.

​​”Team—establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours,” a message from Waltz reads, according to Goldberg. “My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.”

“Whether it’s now or several weeks from now, it will have to be the United States that reopens these shipping lanes,” Waltz said in another message.

Concerned citizens everywhere are calling BS.

“With all due respect to Karoline here (none), this is an obvious lie,” wrote Pod Save America’s Tommy Vietor. “They were discussing the names of specific individuals the US military was targeting with air strikes. That is absolutely, 100% guaranteed to have been classified information.”

“Thanks for confirming the Signal chat existed and that Cabinet members are so inept that they added Jeffrey Goldberg,” another reply to Leavitt’s statement read.

This comes after Defense Secretary Hegseth outright denied that any war plans were shared and Trump denied that he knew anything about the situation at all—ignorance that did unfortunately feel sincere.