Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, downplayed the severity of messages sent by Trump administration officials to a Signal group chat that inadvertently included a journalist, calling the reporting an exaggeration by a partisan critic of President Donald Trump.
“There’s no locations listed there. There are no sources and methods. There’s no specific target,” Cotton said, speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning. “Certainly, there was nothing called war plans, which was an embellishment and exaggeration by a known left-wing partisan opponent of the president.”
After Trump administration officials denied sharing classified information in the Signal group chat, which included the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, the outlet released the withheld details on Wednesday. The new report included messages in the chat from Hegseth, which detailed the timeline for strikes they planned to conduct on Houthi targets before the strikes were publicly announced.
Cotton resisted concerns over how the information about the strikes was communicated, arguing that the real focus should be on the effectiveness of the military actions. He praised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump for taking decisive action against the Houthi rebels.
.@SenTomCotton on most recent Signal message threads: “There’s no locations listed there. There are no sources connected. There’s no specific target. Certainly, there was nothing called war plans which was an embellishment and exaggeration.” pic.twitter.com/ZJ6WKtoUDF
— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) March 26, 2025
“The extent there was any allegation of classified information here that was not information that was coming from either Tulsi Gabbard or John Ratcliffe. So, as far as I know, it’s outside of our jurisdiction,” Cotton said. “I haven’t reviewed every single line that’s been posted this morning. I’m sure that many people will be calling for investigations.”
The Arkansas senator argued that the messaging app that Trump’s Cabinet and administration officials used to deliberate the airstrikes was approved by the Biden administration.
“Signal was authorized for use by the Biden administration, as Director Ratcliffe testified, it was loaded onto his devices the very first day he was at the office, and the information that was disclosed this morning did not include locations, it did not include specific targets, it did not include sources and methods,” he said.
“I’m sure the administration — all of the administration — will continue to review how it communicates inside and deliberates consistent with requirements of operational security and presidential record-keeping rules,” he added.
Democrats are furious about the report, with some demanding investigations into the disclosure of sensitive material and others going as far as to call on Hegseth to resign.
Several Republicans have voiced concerns over Goldberg’s inclusion in the chat and requested a full briefing.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) acknowledged that top officials “made a mistake,” speaking with reporters on Wednesday morning.
“These guys, they made a mistake. They know it; they should own it and fix it so it never happens again,” he said. “If you focus on the end result, they got the outcome I think everybody wanted.”