Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) stated on Sunday that Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe “lied repeatedly” about messages in a Sign group chat by which high members of the Trump administration mentioned an assault on Yemen.
“Intelligence officials told your committee this week that no classified information was shared. Do you believe that Directors Ratcliffe and Gabbard were truthful when they testified before your committee?” NBC Information’s Kristen Welker requested Bennet on “Meet the Press.”
“No, I think they lied repeatedly to our committee and to the House Committee. Kristen, let me try to make this as simple as I can,” Bennet replied. “I think the American people know this. If this material was not classified, literally nothing that I’ve ever heard as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee over all these years is classified.”
Earlier this week, Bennet labeled the Sign incident disrespectful to rank-and-file intelligence officers throughout a Senate Intelligence Committee listening to.
“This sloppiness, this incompetence, this disrespect for our intelligence agencies and the personnel who work for them is entirely unacceptable. It’s an embarrassment. Do better. You need to do better,” he stated Tuesday.
Bennet wasn’t the one Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee to critique the Sign incident Tuesday. The highest Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), went after Trump officers on the shortage of care of together with a journalist and disregarding safety protocols through utilizing Sign for dialogue of an vital operation.
“There’s plenty of declassified information that shows that our adversaries, China and Russia, are trying to break into encrypted systems,” Warner stated Tuesday, saying that the Trump administration had gone by way of with “careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information, that … is not a one-off or a first-time error.”
In his interview on “Meet the Press,” Bennet stated there’s a “need” for “the top members of our intelligence community to be nonpartisan.”
“We need them to tell the truth to the American people,” he added.
The Hill has reached out to Gabbard’s workplace and the CIA for remark.
