Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said he would support an independent investigation into Trump cabinet officials using a commercial app to discuss sensitive details of a strike earlier this month on Houthi militants in Yemen.
On CNN’s State of the Union, anchor Dana Bash opened an interview with the Oklahoma Republican by asking about the scandal.
Last Monday, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg reported he was added to a group chat on Signal wherein numerous White House officials discussed military strikes in Yemen.
The White House spent the week navigating the scandal. Vice President JD Vance, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were among numerous cabinet officials on the chat.
Democrats have called on all or some of those in the chat to be fired by President Donald Trump. Lankford defended them on CNN but told Bash he would support a thorough review of what happened.
Bash noted Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wickercalled on the wants the Pentagon inspector general to investigate the scandal.
She asked Lankford, “Do you also want an independent investigation into how all of this happened?” The senator replied:
It’s entirely appropriate for the inspector general to be able to look at it and be able to ask two questions. One is obviously how did a reporter get into this thread in the conversation, and the second part of the conversation is when individuals from the administration are not sitting at their desk in a classified setting on a classified computer, how do they communicate to each other? Currently, it’s through encrypted apps is how that communication happens. The next question is is that the right way to be able to do it?
Obviously, that’s the way it has been done for quite a while now. while they’re out on the road. But I do want to remind everybody, this is about the Houthis attacking the Americans. That’s the story behind the story here is that Houthi have attacked American ships 170 some odd times. So for the Trump administration to push back on them is entirely appropriate thing to be able to do. And they are pushing back on him strong to be to stop their attack on American warships.
Bashed said few people were questioning the strike itself.
“The question is about the plans and whether or not it was appropriate to be discussing them on the app that we were just discussing,” she said. “You said it’s appropriate for the Inspector General to look at it. Are you calling on the Inspector general to do so? Because we don’t believe that’s happened yet.”
Lankford said two of his GOP colleagues in the Senate had called for a probe into Signalgate.
“I think it’s entirely appropriate,” he said. “Again, there’s two questions. One is how do reporters get in this conversation, and the second one is, how do members of the administration talk to each other when they’re on the road on things that are clearly timely.”
Watch above via CNN.
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