'Makes me want to throw up': Lawmaker wags finger at Fox News host politicizing scandal

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) clashed with Fox News host Will Cain on Tuesday over a bombshell report that top Donald Trump administration officials used a Signal group chat to discuss war plans in the presence of a reporter.

The explosive report in The Atlantic revealed that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared classified information in a Signal chat that included the outlet's editor-in-chief among its membership. The Signal chat included top officials in President Donald Trump's Cabinet who discussed classified military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

Wagging his finger at Himes, Cain complained the Signal chat was "not a serious mistake putting American lives in danger."

"Your side," said Cain, is trying to "score political points" because they're mad about what Trump has "been able to accomplish in two months."

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But Himes wasn't having it. He said he's spent a decade watching how the intelligence community communicates with war fighters.

"So, I'm not gonna listen to you tell me that this about a partisan advantage," Himes clapped back. "It is a mistake, and yes, it is a very serious mistake. Because if you make a mistake in Social Security and grandma doesn't get a phone call through, that's bad. But there is not zero risk that our men and women in uniform — the ones who flew those F-35s and F-18s — that they weren't put in harms way."

Cain tried to interrupt, asking how lives were endangered. Himes said that in an unsecure channel could be intercepted by Russians or anyone else with the technology. If the Houthis had received a heads-up, they could have moved their equipment and attacked American soldiers.

"It is by the grace of God that we don't have dead pilots or sunken ships right now," Himes said. "And I will tell you, whether it's a big mistake or a small mistake, to then go and attack [Atlantic reporter] Jeffrey Goldberg without whom we wouldn't even know about this mistake — it's just got to make —"

Cain again interrupted to attack Goldberg, but Himes said any intelligence expert would call Goldberg the cherry on top of a huge mistake. He then conceded Himes' point that it was a mistake and that it was bad to discuss over Signal, but he still blamed Himes for trying to score a win for Democrats over a Trump administration mistake.

Himes wagged his finger to the camera. "You are the one making this a partisan issue. We are talking about the lives of our men and women, and it makes me want to throw up to hear you turn this into a partisan issue. You just need to stop this."

See the clip below or at the link here.