CIA Director John Ratcliffe grilled on Signal group chat leak that discussed strike on Houthis

CIA director John Ratcliffe clashed with a Democrat senator on Tuesday over a description of the Trump administration's leaked signal chat lawmakers.

D-Colo, Ratcliffe and Sen. Michael Bennett. The exchange between took place Tuesday morning at the Senate Intelligence Committee's annual “Threat to Hometown” hearing.

However, much of this year's hearing focused on the surprising news that Trump's top top officials, including Ratcliffe, mistakenly included Atlantic editor Jeffrey Golberg in the signal group chat that he discussed plans for an upcoming strike in Hausis, Yemen.

The news was first reported on Monday on Golberg on a first-person account that sent shockwaves throughout Washington, DC

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In particular, Ratcliffe was burned into the encrypted messaging app by lawmakers to exchange classified security information using the Trump administration. The senator requested to know who had added well-known editor and journalist Goldberg to the so-called “Houthi PC Small Group,” where he remained unnoticed for several days.

Bennett asked Ratcliffe if he shared his view that the signal thread in question had nothing wrong with the issue, and the director of national intelligence that the chat in question had no targeting information or combat sequences.

Bennett said this was in Ratcliffe's testimony, but said, “It's Coach Ratcliffe, who's a bit off that's your opinion.”

“Are there rules for the CIA? [the] Processing classified information? ” he asked.

“Yes,” replied Ratcliffe. He added that he had never heard of Goldberg before, but admitted that he had admitted to the signaling thread that “evidently he's been added” by someone in the group.

“I don't know how he was added,” Ratcliffe said before Bennett stopped.

Trump reveals who was behind the signal text chain link

President Donald Trump, accompanied by national security adviser Michael Waltz, will ask a reporter a question at a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Latte on the left in his oval office on March 13, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“Everyone in America knows,” Bennett said.

Ratcliffe said it would not use the app to share sensitive information or share targeting information.

“And your testimony as CIA director is that it's perfectly appropriate to have conversations like this at the signal,” Bennett asked. “Is it appropriate?”

Ratcliffe began to respond by saying, “No, that's not me,” before the Democrat senator cut him off.

He then tried again and challenged Bennett: “Did I say that? When did you use the word “appropriate”? ”

Trump officials accidentally text Atlantic journalists about military strikes in obvious security breaches

“Obviously, 'I see nothing here' what your testimony is,” Bennett said. “This was a normal day at the CIA. We chatted about this kind of signal, in fact, as normal as the last administration left us here for us,” that's your testimony today. ”

“No, that's not my testimony,” Ratcliffe fought back. “I You didn't say that just relates, Senator. ”

Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe are preparing to testify before the Capitol Hill Senate Intelligence Committee on March 25, 2025. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarck)

The repetition wrapped in a fierce remand from Bennett, who told Ratcliffe about signal chat, tells him: “You need to do better. You need to do better.”

During the hearing, other Democrats, including Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, asked Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegses to step down from the signal chat in question.

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously tried to pay Signal Chat, informing reporters on Monday that the attack on Houthis, which was discussed in the group chat, was “very successful and effective.”

“President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including national security adviser Mike Waltz,” she said.