Tulsi Gabbard lambasted by Sen. Warner over refusal to comment on ‘leaked Yemen war plans’; ‘Sloppy, careless behavior’
Tulsi Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee during a public hearing on international threats to the United States.
Tulsi Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee for a public hearing on international threats to the United States on Tuesday.
Gabbard, the National Intelligence Director, refused to respond to the hearing's apparent question, which was about an alleged group chat that leaked the US' war plans in Yemen.
Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic claimed in a bombshell story that Gabbard was also an integral part of a covert group of US officials that conversed about launching an attack on Houthis. According to Goldberg, he was inadvertently added to the chat group about forthcoming military strikes in Yemen.
When Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Sen. Mark Warner asked Gabbard if she was part of the chat, she said, "Senator, I don't want to get into this." She stated that she didn't want to discuss the issue while the National Security Council was considering it.
Following her response, Warner said that the revelation may have resulted in the loss of American lives.
He went on to blast Gabbard for “kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly.”
“It's also just mind-boggling to me...nobody bothered to even check...who are all the names. I think this is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information. This is not a one-off, or a first-time error,” he said.
As Gabbard was sitting in front of him, he asserted, “If this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired.”
Did John Ratcliffe and Kash Patel respond to Warner's question?
John Ratcliffe, the Director of CIA, acknowledged taking part in the conversation. However, he said that the discussion was “entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information.”
Kash Patel declined to reveal if the bureau will investigate whether Cabinet members inappropriately released national security information to the journalist over a chat group. “Director Patel, has the FBI launched any investigation of this?” Warner asked.
“I was just briefed about it late last night, this morning. I don’t have an update,” Patel responded.
Goldberg, an Atlantic journalist, documented the Houthi bombing preparation process in great detail in his story. He even shared the screenshots., indicating that what everyone was thinking.
Meanwhile, the White House continued to maintain that there was no sensitive material. On the other hand, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that no war strategy was being discussed in the group.
