From 1h
ago
09.53 GMT
Widespread
criticism follows White House security blunder
Good
morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I
will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start
with the widespread condemnation after senior members of Donald Trump’s cabinet
were involved in a serious security breach while discussing secret military
plans for recent US attacks on the Houthi armed group in Yemen.
In an
extraordinary blunder, key figures in the Trump administration – including the
vice-president, JD Vance, the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, the secretary of
state, Marco Rubio, and the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard –
used the commercial chat app Signal to convene and discuss plans – while also
including a prominent journalist in the group.
The news
was met with outrage and calls for an investigation in the US, with Senate
minority leader Chuck Schumer calling it “one of the most stunning breaches of
military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time”
Signal is
not approved by the US government for sharing sensitive information.
“If true,
this story represents one of the most egregious failures of operational
security and common sense I have ever seen,” said Jack Reed of Rhode Island,
the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a statement.
He said
American lives are “on the line. The carelessness shown by Trump’s Cabinet is
stunning and dangerous. I will be seeking answers from the Administration
immediately.”
Jim Himes
of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a
statement that he was “horrified” by the reports.
Himes
said if a lower-ranking official “did what is described here, they would likely
lose their clearance and be subject to criminal investigation. The American
people deserve answers,” which he said he planned to get at Wednesday’s
previously scheduled committee hearing.
Some
Republicans also expressed concerns. Roger Wicker, the Mississippi Republican
who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters on Monday:
“We’re very concerned about it and we’ll be looking into it on a bipartisan
basis.”
Reed said
he would be speaking with Wicker about what the committee will do to “follow
up” on the Signal leak. Meanwhile, Senate majority leader John Thune said he
wants to learn more about what happened.
“Obviously,
we got to run it to the ground, figure out what went on there,” said Thune, a
South Dakota Republican.
In other
news:
An
appeals court judge said Monday that Nazis were given more rights to contest
their removal from the US during the second world war than Venezuelan migrants
deported by the Trump administration.
Foreign
workers at US government-backed media outlets being cut by the Trump
administration say they face deportation to their home countries, where some
risk imprisonment or death at the hands of authoritarian governments.
The US
postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, who said earlier this month that he had asked
the government team led by Elon Musk for assistance with a number of issues,
announced he was resigning immediately.
A
Columbia University student who took part in pro-Palestinian protests at the
university is suing Donald Trump’s administration for attempting to deport her.
Trump’s
administration is seeking sponsors for the White House Easter Egg Roll, in a
break with tradition that is likely to draw further scrutiny over his
government’s relationship with corporate backers.
Hundreds
of firings inside the federal government’s student aid department have sparked
concern among workers and student loan advocates, who warn that the student
loan system is at risk.
A federal
judge has ruled that the US government cannot remove two transgender men from
the Air Force, the latest courtroom victory for LGBTQ+ rights advocates
challenging Trump’s order banning trans people from military service.
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