Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said there is “no question” that the information shared on the Signal group chat with high-level defense officials was classified.
“Absolutely,” Warner said in an interview on ABC News’s “This Week,” when asked whether the information in the group chat, which inadvertently included The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, was classified.
“It was of such a nature, when you were doing the actual battle plans and the timing, what type of aircraft were being sent out,” Warner continued. “If you had been a traditional military officer or a CIA caseworker, and you were this sloppy and careless with this classified information, you would be fired. No doubt about it.”
Goldberg first reported on the Signal group chat noting that the military attack plans on Houthi rebels in Yemen, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent around in the chat, included details about the weapons used, timeline of the attacks and the aircraft involved.
The journalist, however, said he would not quote from the messages — or publish them in full — because they contained information that would be considered classified. After the Trump administration repeatedly insisted the information was not classified, Goldberg and his colleagues at The Atlantic decided to publish subsequent reporting containing the messages.
Warner was asked to clarify how Hegseth and other administration officials could continue to insist no classified information was shared in the chat.
“They keep saying it was not classified. And what is the confusion there? Could Pete Hegseth have since made it unclassified?” anchor Martha Raddatz asked in the interview, adding, “Do different agencies have different classifications?”
“There is no question, regardless of agency, that this was classified. And the point, what I wish Hegseth and those folks who are obfuscating — as giving them the benefit of the doubt, I think they’re lying about — they should know this is classified,” Warner said.
Pressed on whether he thinks every person insisting the information is not classified is lying, Warner said, “I think there is no question, when you put out time and place.”
“It insults the intelligence of the American people when somebody says, ‘oh, no, nothing classified here,’” he added.
