Sen. James Lankford (R-LA), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday that he does not believe there is an “issue of leadership” with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth following the leak of a Signal group chat in which Trump administration officials discussed plans for airstrikes on Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” anchor Dana Bash asked Lankford if Hegseth should take responsibility after noting that the defense secretary “shared the specific information about the timing and aircraft being used” in the Signal chat.
“I think he just joined into an encrypted app,” Lankford said, adding that he did not “see it as much of an issue” because “they all believed that this was a closed circle of conversation” and Hegseth was trying to give them “a heads up” of the attack plan “as we…
