Senator defends military chat app use after attacks


Listen To Story Above

Senator Markwayne Mullin addressed concerns about Signal chat communications among senior national security officials during his appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” When questioned by host Kristen Welker about the appropriateness of discussing an imminent military strike on the commercial app, Mullin defended the conversation.

“What this shows wasn’t open conversation that was happening. There was no war plans that The Atlantic put out. What they did is they had a successful attack against the Houthis, it’s a terrorist organization that have been harassing our Navy since 2023. They attacked our navy 174 times, and the Biden administration did nothing but sit on their hands. What the Trump administration did was take the fight directly to the Houthis, so what the conversation should be is why didn’t the Biden administration do something the last two years instead of us being focused on this Signal chat, which there was no classified information given out. The conversation was a thoughtful conversation, and the attack was extremely successful.”

Mullin emphasized the absence of sensitive information in the communications, stating that no specific locations or details were revealed that could compromise security. He further elaborated: “Tell me where the location was that. What part of the region wasn’t at? What part of the world was this at? We have a lot of conflicts and issues going around the world from Africa to anywhere in the Middle East to even Asia or possibly through Europe. This could have been going on anyplace in the world. There was no specific information except that a target was going to be hit.”

The Oklahoma Republican shifted focus to criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of Houthi attacks, suggesting that the discussion should center on the administration’s delayed response rather than the communication method used by security officials.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR