Speaker Johnson Defends Trump Officials In Leaked Group Chat Discussing Yemen War Plans

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At today's House Republican leadership press briefing, Speaker Johnson was asked about the leaked war plans conversation on Signal between Trump Administration officials.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Yeah, Mr. Leader, two questions on the same topic. Have you ever engaged in messaging

00:06at chats with the Trump administration about national security matters,

00:11signal, whatever, all of those things? And also, I think you know the story,

00:15but I'm curious if the Biden administration found out that they were discussing national

00:20security attacks on other countries over signal. I wonder how you react.

00:25Well, look, the White House came out with a statement, I think, within the last hour,

00:28somebody handed me what they said. They clarified there were no war plans discussed,

00:33there was no classified material sent on that thread. The White House Council is looking into

00:40the matter, looking into how this other number was inadvertently added. Obviously, that was a mistake

00:45and a serious one. But I just want to say, I mean, thanks to President Trump and his strong

00:50leadership and all the, everybody on that group chat, the leaders on that group chat are

00:54extraordinary people. I know them all personally. They're patriots. They're doing a great job for

00:58the country. And that was a successful mission. I mean, we're taking out Houthi terrorists. That's

01:02what the American people expect the administration to do, to restore peace through strength and to

01:08act decisively. So, look, they've acknowledged that there was an error, and they're correcting

01:14it. And I would have asked the same thing of the Biden administration. I don't think

01:17anyone should have lost their job over that because an errant number, you know, found its

01:22way onto a dialogue between leaders. It's a mistake, but we got to correct it going forward,

01:26and they will. Was the mistake adding the reporter, or was the mistake having a signal

01:30chat about these matters at all? I don't, look, I don't use signal. I'm not, I don't know all the

01:34parameters of it, so it's not my, I'm not in a position to determine whether that's appropriate

01:38or not. You have to leave that to others. But I would just say, obviously, we got to be careful

01:42with these things, and I know that they will. I mean, Mike Waltz is a colleague of mine,

01:47former colleague, and he was born for the job. He is highly qualified. President said he has

01:52total confidence in him, and we do as well. So, yeah.

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