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

3 days ago

At today's House Republican leadership press briefing, Speaker Johnson was asked about the leaked war plans conversation on Signal between Trump Administration officials.

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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.

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

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