“THE AWESOME GRACE OF GOD”
Democrats criticised the administration for what they saw as playing down, rather than acknowledging, the incident.
“I think that it’s by the awesome grace of God that we are not mourning dead pilots right now,” Democrat Jim Himes of Connecticut said at the House hearing.
“Everyone here knows that the Russians and the Chinese could have gotten all of that information,” Himes said.
At the hearings, administration officials insisted the chat had not included classified information. Democrats disputed that, and Republicans acknowledged that it had at least included sensitive information.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham issued a statement saying he supported Trump’s national security team and praised the administration’s handling of the incident, but noted the content of the messages “do in fact detail very sensitive information about a planned and ongoing military operation”.
While administration officials insisted that the chat had not included “war plans”, screenshots released by the Atlantic showed that Hegseth texted the start time for the planned killing along with details of further US airstrikes that would normally be closely guarded secrets.
“This is classified information,” Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois said at the hearing, calling for Hegseth’s resignation. “It’s a weapons system as well as sequence of strikes, as well as details about the operations.”
