Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said there’s “no doubt” that Russia and China were monitoring the U.S. officials’ devices used for a war plan text chat.
“I will guarantee you, 99.99 percent with confidence, Russia and China are monitoring those two phones,” Bacon told CNN’s Manu Raju. “So I just think it’s a security violation, and there’s no doubt that Russia and China saw this stuff within hours of the actual attacks on Yemen or the Houthis.”
National security adviser Mike Waltz reportedly invited The Atlantic’s editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, into the Signal group, in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared secret war plans.
Bacon, a former Air Force Brigadier General and a member of the House Armed Services committee, said he always was concerned about Hegseth, an Army veteran who was a longtime Fox News host.
Bacon called the group chat, which also included Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President Vance, a “gross error.”
“They intentionally put highly classified information on an unclassified device,” he told CNN. “I would have lost my security clearance in the Air Force for this and for a lot less.”
According to the messages shared by Goldberg, Vance pushed back on plans to attack the Houthis in an attempt to halt their aggression against commercial ships in the Red Sea. He said he hated “bailing Europe out again.”
Hegseth then replied and said he shares Vance’s “loathing of European free-loading,” calling it “PATHETIC.”
Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy White House chief of staff, told the group that Trump was in favor of the Houthi attacks, seemingly ending the debate.
Bacon said he was concerned about the “loathing toward Europe.”
“Europe’s our ally. NATO is our ally. Canada’s our ally. I think now we can see why they’re so condescending and rude to our allies, because you just see it in a private text,” Bacon said. “To me, the concern is that they’re making foreign policy based on this ‘loathing,’ and I don’t like it.”
Bacon has been a rare GOP voice pushing back on the Trump administration, stressing respect for court rulings and emphasizing respect for checks and balances as the administration clashes with judges.
