CNN’s Brianna Keilar pressed House Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast (R-FL) repeatedly on Tuesday on why he does not believes a war plans leak out of the White House “rises” to the level of needing to be investigated.
In a Tuesday interview following a fiery Senate hearing with National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe on the leak, Mast argued that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time in office was a far more egregious breach of national security standards.
An FBI investigation into Clinton ultimately found she did not act criminally, but then-FBI Director James Comey accused her of being “extremely careless” with her communications.
Ratcliffe and other White House officials are now facing questions after The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally looped into a conversation on the text platform Signal where officials discussed plans to attack the Houthis in Yemen. The White House has insisted no classified information was shared in the text message chain.
Keilar asked Mast whether Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had broken the “trust” with men and women “downrange,” something she noted Mast accused Clinton of in 2016.
Mast answered:
Certainly not. And I give you my word at this moment as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, if at any point Secretary Rubio or Secretary Hegseth go out there and keep a server in their basement, delete 30,000 emails off of it, then go on the internet and try to figure out how it is that they wipe the server entirely clean while they’re under investigation by the FBI, by their own administration, if at any time secretary Rubio or Pete Hegseth do that, I give you my word that I’ll call for an investigation.
Keilar repeatedly asked why this case does not deserve as much scrutiny as Clinton’s, to which Mast argued that there will be a “record” of this text chain and no one is trying to delete it.
“These are set to delete at one week or four weeks,” Keilar noted about Signal.
“You’re trying to conflate something that’s not the reality. They’re not going out there and trying to delete something while under investigation by the FBI,” Mast shot back.
“They’re not under investigation. You are not investigating,” Keilar said.
When the CNN anchor pressed Mast on how he could be sure that a record will be kept of these messages, Mast simply said because it’s “required.”
“That’s what was required of Hillary Clinton How do you know that is what is happening here? There’s a difference between something being required and something actually happening,” Keilar said.
Mast did confirm that he will be requesting a record of the text chain.
Check out the exchange below:
BRIANNA KEILAR: So when you were running for Congress in 2016, you said that Hillary Clinton’s handling of sensitive information on personal email, on a personal server put American lives at risk. You said in a Breitbart interview that there’s a trust between the men and women who are serving downrange and their leaders, and that Clinton broke that trust. You said, quote, she wants to be the top person tasked with digesting intelligence and what is going on on the battlefield. Every person should be absolutely outraged over this. Did Secretary Hegseth break the trust with the men and women serving downrange?
BRIAN MAST: Certainly not. And I give you my word at this moment as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, if at any point Secretary Rubio or Secretary Hegseth go out there and keep a server in their basement, delete 30,000 emails off of it, then go on the internet and try to figure out how it is that they wipe the server entirely clean while they’re under investigation by the FBI, by their own administration, if at any time secretary Rubio or Pete Hegseth do that, I give you my word that I’ll call for an investigation.
KEILAR: I’m not here to defend Hillary Clinton’s emails. I asked her about them in the first campaign interview, and there were many questions to be had. Why not have an investigation of what has happened here? Because there are many questions that have not been answered, and there were many questions, as you were aware, you were part of it, in that instance, that were at least asked. There was an FBI investigation, even if I suspect you found the outcome unsatisfying. There was an investigation. Why not investigate this?
MAST: So, one, you have those questions going on right now in the Senate. Two, it is my understanding that Senator Wicker and perhaps Chairman Rogers here in the house are also mulling that over, given that this was a military operation for the Armed Services Committees.
KEILAR: But you don’t want, I mean, you have jurisdiction. Why don’t you want to investigate?
MAST: I don’t think this rises to the level of an investigation like that, as my own personal opinion. And again, I’d give you the same point that I just made. If they start deleting 30,000 emails off a personal server kept in their basement, while under investigation by the FBI, and try to figure out how to wipe it clean entirely, I’ll conduct that investigation.
KEILAR: These are set to delete at one week or four weeks.
MAST: You’re trying to conflate something that’s not the reality. They’re not going out there and trying to delete something while under investigation by the FBI.
KEILAR: They’re not under investigation. You are not investigating.
MAST: That’s exactly right. They’re not. They’re not trying to go out there and delete something.
KEILAR: Sir, it’s set to delete. It’s set to delete at one week or four weeks. It is set to delete.
MAST: It’s also set to have a recording of any conversation that takes place, as is required.
KEILAR: How do you know that?
MAST: That’s what’s required. They’re supposed to keep a record of what takes place.
KEILAR: That’s what was required of Hillary Clinton. How do you know that is what is happening here? There’s a difference between something being required and something actually happening. So if that is required, then are you going to make sure it’s happening by requesting those communications?
MAST: Yes I will. And also we have this playing out right now in front of us where it is being spoken about again in a Senate intelligence hearing as we speak.
KEILAR: They said they didn’t recall. You heard it. They said so many times that they didn’t recall. They didn’t recall what was in the texts on Signal.
MAST: They might not recall what’s in the text, but again, it is a requirement that they go out there and they document for the purpose of keeping record of these things. And I would hold everybody to that expectation. If that’s the requirement for you, you hold to that expectation.
KEILAR: Okay. So just to make sure, you just said you will be requesting those communications. That’s what I heard you say. Is that correct?
MAST: I don’t know if I actually said that or not, but I’m happy to say yes. Yeah, I’m certainly happy to request that. I would like to know myself because again, the rules are the rules and we want to see that that’s taking place.
Watch above via CNN.
The post CNN’s Brianna Keilar Scuffles With GOP Rep. On Whether War Plans Leak Needs To Be Investigated: ‘You Have Jurisdiction!’ first appeared on Mediaite.
