Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., dismissed criticism over a leaked Signal group chat among Trump officials on Newsmax on Tuesday, calling the left's media coverage "blown out of proportion."
Mullin defended Trump's team after the accidental inclusion of The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg in a Signal group chat discussing a military strike in Yemen.
During an appearance on "Finnerty," Mullin downplayed the controversy and accused left-leaning media outlets of inflating the incident to discredit Trump's inner circle.
"A mistake happened. But it's been blown way out of proportion," Mullin said. "People have been comparing this to Hillary Clinton's emails — that if you spoke out against Hillary Clinton's emails, you better be speaking out against this Signal chat. There's a huge difference between the two."
Mullin said no classified information, including Republican lawmakers and senior advisers, was shared in the group chat. The chat came to public attention after Goldberg was inadvertently added and able to observe messages related to a U.S. strike on Houthi targets in Yemen.
"There is zero classified information held on this group chat," Mullin said. "Unlike Hillary's, there was TTS; there was SSCI — meaning top secret, top secret that is very sensitive material that was served."
Mullin defended national security adviser Mike Waltz, who has been linked to the accidental addition of Goldberg.
"Mike is a dear friend of mine, someone that I would trust with my life ... a mistake happened," Mullin said. "But the media, the left media, has blown this thing out of proportion."
He said the mix-up could have been as simple as a mistyped phone number or a contact entered incorrectly — a risk common with widely circulated phone numbers.
"I could speculate about it," Mullin added. "I've entered people wrong in my contacts. I've had missed numbers from someone that I didn't answer because I didn't recognize it ... It could have been one of those."
Mullin said the group chat served as a space for officials to have an "open discussion on a very serious issue."
He compared the decisiveness of the Trump-aligned group to the Biden administration's response to previous Houthi attacks, saying "Biden and his administration over the last two years, when our warships got attacked 174 times, literally sat on their hands and did nothing," he said.
While acknowledging the incident "still should've never happened," Mullin said it was not a matter of national security and called for moving on.
"People should be proud of the process that actually took place," he said. "There is no two-face here. You saw leaders of this nation that were making an important decision, that was having the same conversation ... in private or in public. And it's refreshing to see that."
Mullin said he has since updated his settings on Signal and WhatsApp and pledged to be more vigilant in the future.
"I promise you, I will now," he said.
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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