Oklahoma Senator James Lankford is the latest senior Republican to endorse an independent probe into how President Donald Trump‘s national security officials ended up discussing military plans with a journalist on the messaging app Signal.
“It’s entirely appropriate for the [Department of Defense] Inspector General to be able to look at it,” Lankford told CNN on Sunday morning. While he fell short of saying he would call for an investigation himself, he said that he agrees with a similar request made by Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, repeating that “it’s entirely appropriate.”
Why It Matters
The White House has publicly downplayed the accidental leak of military plans on Signal which involved Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Vice President JD Vance, among others, saying that no classified material was discussed.
But even within GOP ranks, many are not buying Trump’s dismissal of the incident, which officials said put American troops at risk.
Though many have criticized the “sloppy” behavior of the officials involved in so-called “Signalgate,” as described by Representative Tim Sheehy, a Montana Republican, no one from the GOP has so far joined Democrats in calling for Hegseth’s resignation.
What to Know
Prompted by CNN’s State of the Union host Dana Bash, Lankford said that the Pentagon‘s inspector general should be able to investigate the Signal incident and ask two questions.
“One is, obviously, how did a reporter get into this thread in the conversation,” he told Bash. “And the second part of the conversation is, when individuals in the administration are not sitting at their desk in a classified setting on a classified computer, how did they communicate to each other? Currently it’s through encrypted apps(…)The next question is, is that the right way to be able to do it?”
The Atlantic‘s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed last week that he had been added to a Signal group chat where top officials debated details of attacks against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Among those included in the chat, beside the officials already named, were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. None apparently realized that Goldberg had been invited to the group chat.
While Goldberg said he initially doubted the legitimacy of the chat, which was called “Houthi PC small group,” he then understood it was real when the surprise strikes against the Houthis detailed on Signal actually took place as and when described.
Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, confirmed the message chain “appears to be an authentic message chain,” adding that they were “reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
Hughes added that “the thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security.”
Hegseth, on the other hand, denied that any war plans were communicated on Signal, but a second series of messages shared by The Atlantic journalist showed him detailing the time, location and weapons used in the strikes.
In the aftermath of Goldberg’s revelation, several Democrats called for an investigation into the incident and asked for the secretary of defense to step down. Lankford did not call for Hegseth’s resignation, describing such a request as an “overkill.”
“I don’t see this as an issue of leadership,” Lankford said, after being pressed on the topic by Bash. “I’ve heard some people calling for his resignation, I think that’s way overkill.”
Lankford is the second senior Republican to publicly support an investigation into the incident after Wicker, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to the Trump administration together with the committee’s top Democrat Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island on Wednesday asking for the launch of a probe into the Signal group chat.
What People Are Saying
During a committee hearing on Wednesday, Senator Roger Wicker said the Trump administration should just “own up” to the “mistake.” He added: “The information as published recently appears to me to be of a sensitive nature. I would have wanted it classified.”
Representative Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, wrote on X: “Incompetence so severe that it could have gotten Americans killed. There is no world in which this information should have been shared in non-secure channels. Hegseth is in so far over his head that he is a danger to this country and our men and women in uniform.”
National security adviser Mike Waltz wrote on X on Wednesday: “No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X on Wednesday: “The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT ‘war plans’. This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin.”
What’s Next
Nonprofit watchdog American Oversight launched a lawsuit against the Trump administration for using Signal to plan military operations. Federal Judge James Boasberg, who is overseeing the case, barred administration officials from destroying messages sent over the messaging app earlier this month.
While Leavitt insisted earlier this week that Signal is “an approved app,” the Pentagon has reportedly warned its employees against using it, according to NPR.
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