From 'We All Make Mistakes' To 'Hegseth Should Be Stepping Down': Lawmakers React To War Plans Leak

Lawmakers respond to the leak of war plans by top Trump Administration officials.

Transcript

00:00I understand it was a mistake and that the White House is taking steps to make sure it

00:07never happens again.

00:10There's got to be a consequence for this.

00:12We need to be told how this happened, what they're doing to fix it, and whoever was responsible

00:19for this kind of thing should be severely disciplined.

00:23This is U.S. military people deployed from Virginia who are engaged in hostile military

00:28fire that will likely lead to a response that could put U.S. servicemembers, including

00:33Virginians, at risk.

00:38I've long said Mr. Hexeth is not qualified to be Secretary of Defense, and this is yet

00:42another example of the fact that the Trump administration continues to play fast and

00:47lose with this nation's national security, and somebody needs to get fired.

00:52Hexeth should be stepping down.

00:57We're going to look into this and see what the facts are, but it's definitely a concern

01:05and you can be sure the committee, House and Senate, will be looking into this.

01:11It appears that mistakes were made, no question.

01:18I will guarantee you, 99.99% with confidence, Russia and China are monitoring those two

01:24phones.

01:25I just think it's a security violation, and there's no doubt that Russia and China saw

01:31this stuff within hours of the actual attacks on Yemen or the Houthis, so that's wrong.

01:42At the end of the day, you make mistakes, and I'm sure President Trump has made his

01:50voice be known to the SecDef and the people involved, because that's a pretty secure situation.

01:58Was it responsible?

01:59Well, it was a mistake.

02:01We make mistakes.

02:02We all make mistakes, and I don't know how it happened.

02:06It might have been a communication problem with somebody in the communications department.

02:14You can't put just blame on just one person other than the fact that the person in charge

02:19of that is the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hickstead.

02:22He'll get it corrected, and that's just part of transition and growing.

02:32The administration is addressing what happened.

02:33Apparently, an inadvertent phone number made it onto that thread.

02:37They're going to track that down and make sure that it doesn't happen again.

02:39Clearly, I think the administration has acknowledged it was a mistake, and they'll tighten up and

02:43make sure it doesn't happen again.