Stephen Lynch Grills Sec. Scott Bessent On His Use Of Signal: 'There Are Serious Consequences...'

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At a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) questioned Sec. Scott Bessent about his use of Signal.

Transcript

00:00Mr. Lynch for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, thank you for coming

00:05before this committee and helping us with our work. Mr. Secretary, between March 11th and March

00:1215th, 2025, you and more than a dozen senior officials of the Trump administration, including

00:20Secretary Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, National Security Advisor Mike

00:29Walsh used a commercially available, non-governmental, encrypted, non-secure app to discuss and coordinate

00:37imminent U.S. military strikes in Yemen in a group chat entitled Houthi PC Small Group.

00:46Particularly, Defense Secretary Hegseth shared actionable intelligence, including sensitive

00:53and classified details of an imminent military operation against Houthi rebels.

00:59And other military plans. These included precise launch times for U.S. jet fighter assets, targeting

01:11locations for those Houthi rebels who were, by the way, equipped with anti-aircraft systems.

01:18Mr. Hegseth shared the targeting sequencing against Houthi rebels and described the weapon systems,

01:29the U.S. weapon systems involved. National Security Council has confirmed that this

01:35signal chat was authentic and that you had participated. You realize that for you, Mr. Secretary, because of the

01:50responsibilities you have, even outside the principles committee, that group, you have, you know, you have a

01:59target on your back from our adversaries, China, North Korea, Russia, and others.

02:09Can I, can I ask you, have you been briefed on the, on the proper protocols for, for discussing

02:15um, information such as, such as active military plans?

02:20Uh, I, I have, uh, by my general counsel.

02:24Very good.

02:25If, if, if you will look, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just trying to

02:30narrow this down because this is really, really a concern, just reclaiming my time.

02:34To that, to that, to that, to that, was, let me, let me ask you, are you, sir, let me, let me ask the

02:40questions and you provide the answers. Okay? How about that? Waiting for the question.

02:46Are you preserving records, Mr. Secretary, of, of these communications as required by the Public

02:51Records Act? Uh, yes, sir. My general counsel has. Good. Okay.

02:54Are you still discussing sensitive military, uh, intelligence on a non-secure line? Uh, I have never

03:02done that. Okay. The National Security Council says you were on a chat that discussed those details.

03:09Are you saying that wasn't the case? Uh, I have said that I have never discussed them.

03:15Someone discussed it with you. You were on that, you were on a insecure, a non-secure line for a

03:19meeting with other, with other, uh, secretaries, right? Those, those people I just mentioned,

03:23you weren't on that chat? Uh, I was, but you're okay. That's, that's what I'm talking about.

03:28So you could have, you could have intervened. You could have brought it up. You could have said,

03:32this is an insecure line. We shouldn't be doing this. We're putting our sons and daughters in uniform at risk.

03:39Pre-attack. You could have done all that.

03:45Mr. Hegseth, this is not involving you, but Mr. Hegseth afterwards

03:52did the same thing with a, with a family chat, his wife, his brother, his sister, uh, family attorney.

03:59You, you, you do understand the, the troublesome nature of that, right? Are you, are you dismissing

04:06that and calling this a, a roaring success as others have done, as the White House has done?

04:12This is troubling. And I, I, I just want the reassurances for this committee.

04:17And for other members of Congress, other committees, and, and for most importantly, for, for the families

04:25of Americans who send their sons and daughters, you know, into harm's way, they put on that uniform.

04:33I just want the reassurances that we're not doing, you know, this, this buffoonery has to stop, right?

04:41At some point, there are serious consequences to not, not complying with, with security protocols.

04:49Mr. Secretary, you're a smart guy. You're a smart guy. You didn't create this situation.

04:57You were drawn into it. I'm just trying to reassure the committee that, that this stuff is not happening

05:05anymore. The gentleman's time has expired. Allow the gentleman to answer? Be a yes or no.

05:13I think the gentleman's time has expired. Well, Congressman, I'm happy to say that because of my

05:18age, I, I pick up the phone and call people. There you go. The gentleman's time has expired.

05:23The gentleman from Georgia, the vice chairman of our financial institution,

05:26subcommittee, Mr. Loudermelt, recognized for five minutes. So thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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