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U.S. Senator on Foreign Affairs Committee Blasts Hegseth: “Can’t Even Be Trusted To Do The Bare Minimum”

by in Daily Edition | March 25, 2025

Senator Shaheen

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (U.S. Customs and Border Protection Photo by Glenn Fawcett) U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

U.S. Senator John Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, has yet to comment on Trump’s Vice President JD Vance and top security staff and cabinet members — Hegseth, Rubio, Gabbard, Waltz — discussing Yemen war plans on a Signal chat which accidentally included The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

While U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth denied the story (“nobody was texting war plans”) even though the veracity of the Signal group chat was confirmed by White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, has commented on the unprecedented security breach.

Shaheen wrote on X: “This is gross incompetence from Trump’s highest-ranking officials. While they revoke press access to Pentagon briefings, they accidentally invited a reporter to their airstrikes group chat. They can’t even be trusted to do the bare minimum and protect our national security.”

Note: Shaheen had raised national security concerns throughout the nomination and confirmation process of Hegseth as Defense Secretary. When she voted against his confirmation, Shaheen said: “The almost three million men and women who serve our nation in uniform deserve a Secretary of Defense who will not needlessly throw them in harm’s way or seek to divide them with partisan politics.”

The Senator also noted that she had voted for every previous Secretary of Defense nominee from both Democratic and Republican administrations: Secretaries Panetta, Hagel, Carter, Mattis, Esper and Austin. And yet, she said, Hegseth “chose not to meet with me or any other Senate Democrats, except the Ranking Member, Jack Reed.” Reed voted against Hegseth, too.

Note: Democrats of the House Foreign Affairs Committee responded by sending a letter to Trump’s national security team demanding answers to reports that the team leaked sensitive and potentially classified military plans.