Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Calling For The Full Release Of The Signal Chat Transcript Following The Alarming Mishandling Of Classified Military Intelligence By Pete Hegseth And Other Trump Administration Officials

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor calling on the Trump administration to release the full, unredacted transcript of the Signal chat following the dangerous mishandling of information by administration officials. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Yesterday I said Pete Hegseth should be fired from his position as Secretary of Defense.

In the short time that Secretary Hegseth has been on the job, he’s already shown – no surprise to us, we said this at the hearing – that he lacks the judgment and character to lead America’s national defense.

What we learned yesterday regarding the information he shared on Signal is shocking. He sent very specific details about military plans over unsecured text messages.

Yesterday’s revelations were alarming, but they were not enough. We need answers, more answers, because more damage may have been done than the public and all of us know.

That’s why my colleagues and I are calling on the Trump administration to release the full and unredacted text conversation from this Signal chat, including everything communicated after the journalist prudently removed himself.

We need to know if anyone – if any senior national security official – was using his or her personal devices. Ms. Gabbard’s silence on this issue when asked repeatedly in Committee was very, very troubling.

And we need to know if there have been other sensitive conversations like this on unsecure channels.

Senate Democrats across committees of jurisdiction are taking action. It’s encouraging that both Ranking Member Reed and Chairman Wicker are calling for a DOD IG investigation.

Now, for the past day, the Trump administration has tied itself into knots about semantics: they’re spending all their energy on what counts as classified or not, what counts as a war plan, an attack plan, and on and on and on.

But that’s utter nonsense. The plain fact is that if the Russians or Iranians or the Houthis had somehow known about these texts, if someone more nefarious than Mr. Goldberg had been added to the text chain, then our troops would have been in danger, the mission would have been compromised.

And once he got caught, did Secretary Hegseth take responsibility for his shocking lack of judgement, which is what he should’ve done? Any upstanding Secretary of Defense would have done that.

Did he exhibit the kind of leadership Americans expect from the man who may deploy our troops into battle – from the man who may send our family members, our friends, our neighbors into harm’s way? Did he accept that responsibility?

No, he didn’t. Instead of accepting responsibility, Secretary Hegseth attacked the journalist – it’s amazing, it’s like an Alice in Wonderland world – and called him deceitful. He pointed fingers. He blamed the liberal media, bemoaned about hoaxes. Mr. Hegseth, this is not a hoax. It’s very real and very serious. You should not be in your job.

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