'Total cowards': Lawmaker slams GOP on CNN for failing to probe Signalgate

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) laid into President Donald Trump's administration on CNN over the Signalgate scandal — and the broad unwillingness of his Republican colleagues in Congress to enforce accountability for top-level national defense and intelligence officials leaking war plans to a reporter in a group chat.

"Congressman, the White House says the case is closed on the Signal controversy. They clearly want to move on," said Anderson Cooper. "You've called for the ouster of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. Is the case closed for you?"

"Absolutely not," said Moulton, a former Marine. "Because they've done nothing to show the American public and most importantly, our troops and intelligence professionals who risk their lives every day. They've done nothing to show that this will not happen again. This is a gross violation of the law, and it put American pilots in danger. It literally opened up where they will be and when over enemy targets, so that those enemies might have shot them down. And the Secretary of Defense needs to make it clear how this will not happen again, because he expects everyone under his command to follow the laws that he grossly violated."

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"The Wall Street Journal's reporting that Mike Waltz, National Security Adviser, has used Signal for other Cabinet-level discussions, according to the journal, including separate threads on how to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, as well as military operations," said Cooper. "I mean, what can you actually do? I mean, congressional investigations. Is that even possible?"

"It's certainly possible if our Republican colleagues weren't total cowards and unafraid ... to confront this administration," said Moulton. "This puts American lives at risk. The troops are in danger because of this behavior. And so it absolutely has to stop. And to be clear, there are two major laws that putting these Signal chats in service violate. The first is classified information. It's obvious that they're discussing classified materials, and this administration does not take government secrets seriously. But the second is these presidential records laws, where they have to maintain records of the decisions that they make."

"This administration just is so lawless, it just disregards those basic laws," he added. "And that's going to continue unless this is put to a stop."

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