Dem Sen. Mark Warner Calls for Waltz, Hegseth Resignations

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee is calling for resignations from Trump administration senior officials amid reports of an editor being added to a Signal chat.

"When the stakes are this high, incompetence is not an option. Pete Hegseth should resign. Mike Waltz should resign," Warner posted to X as he was to deliver his opening statement Tuesday at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that was planned before the news broke Monday night.

Warner said national security adviser Mike Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth failed to "conduct hygiene 101," even if Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe testified Tuesday there was no classified information shared with The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who was inadvertently added to a group chat discussing potential strikes on Houthi terrorists in Yemen.

"If this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired," Warner said at the start of the hearing. "This is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly toward classified information, that this is not a one-off or a first-time error."

Warner used the hearing planned to discuss past intelligence failures to dig deeper on the developing investigation into the Trump administration's mistaken addition of the editor to the chat group.

"Everybody on this committee gets briefed on security protocols," Warner said in his opening statement. "They're told you don’t make calls outside of SCIFs [Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility].

"No, the Signal fiasco is not a one-off. It is unfortunately a pattern we're seeing too often repeated," he added, denouncing the "erosion of trust" among the intelligence workforce and allies across the globe "can't be put back in the bottle overnight."

"Make no mistake: These actions make America less safe," he concluded in his opening statement.

Both the White House and President Donald Trump acknowledged the mistake, but defended Waltz and Hegseth.

"Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he's a good man," Trump said in an interview Tuesday morning.