CNN anchor and senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins called BS on Trump Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s claim that a new report on “Signalgate” represents “total exoneration.”
Hegseth was already under fire over the airstrikes on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat in which survivors were later killed when another shoe fell on Wednesday. Multiple outlets dropped details of a Pentagon Inspector General’s report on Hegseth’s use of Signal on a group chat that included journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, in which attack plans were discussed.
The IG reportedly concluded that Hegseth could have endangered forces with the lapse. But Hegseth and the Trump administration are calling it a “total exoneration.”
On Monday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, the anchor opened her show with a rundown of the breaking news that included a notation about Hegseth’s claim of exoneration, including that there’s “no evidence” he declassified any of the information:
KAITLAN COLLINS: We start tonight with breaking news here, in Washington, as multiple sources are telling CNN that a highly-anticipated report from the Pentagon’s watchdog finds the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, could have put U.S. troops in danger by using an app to share highly sensitive military attack plans.A classified report on what has been informally dubbed Signalgate is now in the hands of Congress tonight. The unclassified version of that report is expected
to be publicly released tomorrow.And it comes as the already-embattled Secretary finds himself embroiled in another widening investigation tonight. That one is into the U.S. airstrike in the Caribbean that killed survivors who did not die in the initial strike on an alleged drug boat, but instead, as the result of a second one on the wrecked ship that they were clinging to. Members of both parties, here in D.C. tonight, have said that that strike could constitute a war crime. It’s a serious allegation.And both of these events tonight have amplified concerns about the Secretary himself, even from some prominent Republicans on Capitol Hill. On the Signal front, you may remember, it was a huge story, when someone on a group chat of top government officials, mistakenly added a reporter, as they were talking about an imminent U.S. attack in Yemen.The Secretary responded tonight by posting, quote, “No classified information.” “Total exoneration.” “Case closed.”But Secretary Hegseth’s messages included material from documents that were marked classified, at the time. And while he has the power to declassify information, of course, we have not seen evidence that he did.The Secretary’s real-time tracking on the Yemen mission, however, offers a pretty stark contrast to what happened with the boat strike that happened months later. Secretary Hegseth says that he stopped watching the live feed before that second strike was orderedto kill survivors.And when President Trump was asked today, if he believes that anyone should be punished for targeting survivors, this is what he said from the Oval Office.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)REPORTER: If it is found that survivors were actually killed while clinging on to that boat, should Secretary Hegseth, Admiral Bradley, or others, be punished?DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think you’re going to find that this is war, that these people were killing our people.(END VIDEO CLIP)COLLINS: That was the President’s answer.We wait to see what Admiral Bradley has to say, because he’s got a slew of meetings, on Capitol Hill, with leaders from both parties about what exactly went down. You can expect Congress to push for messages that were exchanged before that strike happened, what were the directives, what happened during the strike, and, of course, what came after, along with the full video and audio of those strikes.
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.