U.S. Senator Mark Warner expressed shock and dismay over what he calls a “colossal screw up” by Trump administration officials who discussed classified military plans on an unsecured Signal group chat.
During a remote media availability on Wednesday (March 26), the Virginia Democrat said the incident represents a pattern of incompetence that puts American lives at risk and damages relationships with allies.
“I didn’t think this administration could still shock me with their sloppy and careless behavior, but this incident shocked me,” Warner told reporters.
The controversy stems from an Atlantic article that revealed Trump administration officials discussed sensitive military plans on Signal, a messaging platform not approved for classified communications.
Warner says the leak could have endangered American military personnel if the information had fallen into the wrong hands.
“If the level of this information had gotten out and it hadn’t been a responsible journalist, but it was somebody that could have turned this over to Iran or the Houthis, Americans could have died, plain and simple,” Warner said.
The senator, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, says the incident is particularly troubling because it follows a pattern of security lapses by the administration.
“This isn’t a one-off. This is a pattern of incompetence that’s stunning,” he said, citing previous incidents where CIA officers’ identities were compromised by being placed on an unclassified network and classified government real estate information was publicly released.
Warner called for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and said National Security Advisor Michael Waltz committed a “fireable offense” by failing to verify who had access to the chat.
“I believe the Secretary of Defense should do the right thing and resign,” Warner said. “I believe the National Security Advisor, who I hope to build a good working relationship with, but the fact that he couldn’t have folks even figure out who was on the call is a fireable offense.”
The senator also criticized Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, suggesting they misled Congress during testimony about the incident.
“We saw yesterday two of these individuals that were on this chain, the Director of National Intelligence and the Director of the CIA, I believe, lie to the committee,” Warner said. “They were either so uninformed that they didn’t understand that battle plans would be classified in anybody’s book, or they didn’t read or didn’t go back to see what was on this chain.”
Warner outlined several steps he believes should be taken immediately, including collecting and examining the phones used by officials to ensure they haven’t been compromised by malware.
“Have we collected the phones that these individuals use to make sure they’re not compromised? There is the ability for spy services to place malware in phones. We’ve got to make sure it didn’t happen,” he said.
The senator expressed particular concern about one participant in the chat who was reportedly in Russia at the time.
“We had one of the folks, Mr. Witkoff, who I’ve never met, on this chain of communications in Russia. Rule number one, you don’t bring your own devices to Russia or China where they can be penetrated,” Warner said.
When asked about the impact on military families in Virginia, particularly those with loved ones serving in the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group currently deployed to the Middle East, Warner was blunt.
“My first answer would be, you deserve better. Your sons and daughters deserve better. They deserve a defense structure that realizes that you keep secret information secret because lives could be lost,” he said.
Warner emphasized that while the strike discussed in the leaked chat has already occurred without American casualties, future operations could be compromised if similar security breaches continue.
“There will be, I’m sure, subsequent attacks on the Houthis. And when those men and women climb into those jets, they ought to have a better assurance that the Houthis are not lying in wait because somebody’s been careless with the information,” he said.
The senator called for bipartisan pressure to ensure accountability, expressing concern that without it, no one will face consequences for the security breach.
“If there is not even, at least yesterday from the witnesses, any kind of humility to say, ‘Yeah, we screwed up,’ it was back to, like, I almost felt like I was hearing Trump with, ‘Oh, this is a perfect phone call,'” Warner said.
He added that the administration’s response so far has been to “attack, smear and undercut” rather than take responsibility for the security lapse.
“If there’s not accountability here, if nobody’s fired and everybody goes merrily along, I just hope folks will remember that when it comes time to make future choices,” Warner concluded.
