'I don't think it's good': GOP lawmaker learns on live TV about newly revealed war texts
A Republican member of the House Armed Services committee claimed he was unaware of a major development in an unfolding Pentagon scandal involving the highest levels of government.
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) appeared Wednesday morning on CNN, about two hours after The Atlantic published new highly detailed text messages from defense secretary Pete Hegseth revealing plans for a bombing raid in Yemen hours before it was carried out, and said he wasn't sure any crimes were committed by revealing classified information over the non-secure Signal app.
"Whether it was illegal because it was classified information, that's something that's going to be determined by people who are in the legalese of that," McCormick said. "But once again, nobody says that it wasn't done wrong, nobody says that it couldn't have jeopardized the mission. But whether it was illegal or not is something entirely different."
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National security adviser Mike Waltz says he takes full responsibility for adding The Atlantic's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the group chat, which included the vice president and secretary of state, among others, and CNN's Wolf Blitzer read his statement regarding the new texts, which were published after president Donald Trump and other administration officials insisted the information was not classified.
"I'm quoting him now: 'No locations, no sources and methods, no war plans,'" Blitzer said. "Defense secretary Pete Hegseth is also denying that he texted war plans. If these messages aren't war plans, though, what are they? I assume you read all the text messages."
"I have not read all the text messages," McCormick replied. "I don't think they've been released, all the contents."
"They have been released by The Atlantic magazine this morning," Blitzer informed him.
"Okay, I have not read this morning, I've been in meetings all morning," the congressman said. "But I have not read it, so it will be interesting to see what details come from that."
Blitzer told him the screenshots Goldberg revealed showed the type of weapons that were about to be used in this strike, the timing of when the strikes were to begin, and specific targets, including Houthi leaders, one of whom the texts showed was about to walk into a building where his girlfriend lived.
"That building was destroyed, presumably the girlfriend was killed in the process," Blitzer said. "What do you make of those kind of specific details discussed on a private Signal chat?"
"Well, it'll be interesting to see what they come up with in the future," McCormick said. "Obviously, this is something that people have been doing in defense, I don't think it's good. I think it needs to be in a [sensitive compartmented information facility] where you have literally walls and you don't have your cell phones because of this sort of problem. I think they'll do a top-down review of how they do business and make sure that this is not done. Again, I think it's something you can learn from. You admit your mistakes, that's the first step towards correcting them."
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