Trump admin’s ‘sloppy’ Signal leak put Democrats back on offense, Sen Warner says

The Trump administration’s Signal group chat leak was a “sloppy” move that put Democrats on offense for the first time since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said Sunday.

Warner made the statement during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” telling host Shannon Bream that it is an insult to the American people for Trump officials to claim the information discussed in the group chat wasn’t classified.

“This was so inappropriate. This was so sloppy. You know, Signal [is] fine, but don’t put classified information. If this had been any military officer or intelligence officer and they’d done that, they’d be fired,” Warner said.

Warner fell short of stating that the information in the group chat made it “criminal,” as his colleague Sen. Richard Blumenthal has claimed.

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The encrypted messaging app Signal is now under the spotlight after it was revealed that top national security leaders had been in a group chat discussing plans to strike terrorists in Yemen. The chat also mistakenly included the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. The chat was made public by a first-hand account of the group chat published by Goldberg in an article last week.

The Trump administration has maintained that no classified information was shared in the chat, doubling down on Wednesday that the Atlantic’s story was a “hoax” after Goldberg published specific texts from the chat.

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The messages included Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth outlining that combat aircraft were set to take off and strike drones were ready for the operation, which were accompanied by timestamps.

The use of Signal, though not in the context of war or military operations, has become increasingly more prevalent within the D.C. Beltway in recent months. 

The app grew in popularity after it was discovered in October 2024 that Chinese-linked hackers were targeting cellphone data in the U.S., including data belonging to Trump and and Vice President JD Vance during the campaign, Politico reported last week.

Years before the Signal leak involving the Trump administration and subsequent outrage from Democrats and other critics, Democrats had repeatedly touted Signal as an additional precautionary measure against potential hacks.

Democrats have emphasized in the fallout from last week’s leak that they do not object to the Trump administration’s use of Signal, only the sharing of classified information via the app.

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report