Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe defended their participation in the chat during the hearing before the House Intelligence Committee alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, National Security Agency Director Gen. Timothy Haugh and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse that originally focused on the global security threats.
The hearing began shortly after The Atlantic released the entire text conversation that it first reported Monday. Excerpts were posted behind the committee members.
On Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump told reporters his national security adviser Mike Waltz had taken responsibility for creating a Signal group that inadvertently included a journalist and denied any blame on the part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, though he texted a timeline of the planned attack before it was underway.
On Tuesday, the spy chiefs testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, where some members urged Hegseth to resign or be fired.
Wicker, of Mississippi, is not on that committee but heads another agency with oversight of the Pentagon.
Wicker, speaking to reporters at the Capitol, said he and ranking member Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, would be sending a letter asking the administration to expedite an investigation by the Defense Department's Office of Inspector General.
"The chair and the ranking member are working together on a bipartisan basis, as we've always tried to do," Wicker said.
The findings would be sent to his committee.
Wicker said that he and Reed want a classified briefing to the Armed Services Committee "relatively soon" with a senior administration official.
The chairman said another letter to the administration would seek "to get ground truth." They want to learn whether the published transcript is accurate.
Wicker said it "appears to me to be of such a sensitive nature that, based on my knowledge, I would have wanted it classified."
Those on the text exchange said it wasn't classified and most Republicans in Congress agree.
Wicker declined to say whether there would be a full investigation of the use of Signal.
The Pentagon's IG office is being overseen on an acting basis by Steven Stebbins, formerly the principal deputy inspector general.
Soon after Trump became president, Trump fired the inspector general at the Defense Department, Robert Storch, in a purge of internal watchdogs at agencies across the government. They act independently.
National Security Council, White House counsel's office and Elon Musk will lead the investigation into the leak, press secretary Karonline Leavitt said Wednesday during a briefing. Elon Musk, who runs Tesla, SpaceX, X and heads the Department of Government Efficiency, "has offered to put his technical experts on this, to figure out how this number was inadvertently added to the chat - again, to take responsibility and ensure this can never happen again," Laeavitt said.
Wicker said it was "a shame that this security question is distracting the public from - and all of us from - a big success internationally" though "the strike on the Houthis was a hugely successful mission, of which I greatly approved."
Whicker said he didn't think Hegseth should resign or be fired.
"The fact is that the plans for the strike, the timing, the locations, were not revealed to the enemy, and it was a very successful operation," Wicker said. "If, early on in this administration, there were mistakes, I would hope they can be rectified. ... If mistakes were made, I think we're all human, and they should be acknowledged."
Trump administration reacts
Trump defended Hegseth.
"How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do with it," Trump said in response to a question from a reporter in the Oval Office.
"It's all a witch hunt," Trump added.
As he prepared to leave Hawaii on Wednesday, Hegseth said that "there's no units, no locations, no routes, no flight paths, no sources, no methods, no classified information."
However, according to the messages, there was the precise method of attack, including the specific weapons platforms to be used.
He said the texts were a "team update" to provide "general updates in real-time." Classified matters usually take place in a secure room.
The defense secretary also posted on X: This only proves one thing: [The Atlantic editor-in-chief] Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an 'attack plan' (as he now calls it). Not even close," Hegseth posted. "We will continue to do our job, while the media does what it does best: peddle hoaxes."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was on the chat, said: "Obviously someone made a mistake. Someone made a big mistake and added a journalist. Nothing against journalists, but you ain't supposed to be on that thing.
Rubio, a former top lawmaker on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said at a news conference in Jamaica: "I think there'll be reforms and changes made so this never - it's not going to happen again. It can't. I've been assured by the Pentagon and everyone involved that none of the information ... none of the information on there at any point threatened the operation or lives of our servicemen."
Haugh, the National Security Agency director, testified to the House committee an advisory on how to use the Signal app was given to NSA employees because there are risks associated with using it.
Congressional response
Several Democratic members in Congress said Hegseth should be terminated.
The House's top Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, said in a letter to Trump that Hegseth should be "fired immediately" as his "continued presence in the top position of leadership at the Pentagon threatens the nation's security and puts our brave men and women in uniform throughout the world in danger."
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday "members of the Trump administration lied. People need to resign or be fired."
Also, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, who served in the Navy, was an astronaut a member of the Intelligence Committee, said Hegseth should also be terminated.
"This is the most irresponsible thing I've seen from any defense official, let alone the Secretary of Defense," Kelly posted on X. Incompetence at the highest level. There is nothing more sensitive than a combat mission that is about to start. The element of surprise is everything."
House members also grilled the spy bosses Wednesday.
"Everyone here knows that the Russians or the Chinese could have gotten all of that information, and they could have passed it on to the Houthis, who easily could have repositioned weapons and altered their plans to knock down planes or sink ships," Democratic Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes said. "I think that it's by the awesome grace of God that we are not mourning dead pilots right now."
Gabbard said the conversation was "sensitive" but denied that classified information was shared in the chat.
"There were no sources, methods, locations or war plans that were shared," she told lawmakers, adding "war plans" were not discussed.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Wednesday called on Hegseth and other top Trump officials to "own" their mistakes.
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