Brennan: We Should Investigate Trump’s First 70 Days in Office to See if There Has Been ‘Additional Leakage’ in These Unsecured Channels

Sanders: “Director Brennan, today the current CIA director, and since then others, have claimed that Signal comes loaded on the government phones already. And I worked in the Biden Administration in the first year, and I can tell you Signal was not on my government phone, and there was a very small group of people within the federal government that had access to text messaging on their government phones. What do you make of the — only way I can describe it, sir, is gaslighting from the current CIA director about what is happening with this instance, but also the broader security apparatus.”
BRENNAN: “Well, that’s why I think we need to get to the truth. And I think a first step was made when Senators Wicker and Reid asked the inspector general at the Pentagon to do a thorough and immediate investigation on this so that we could actually understand what also might be at risk, and then to find out what has been going on in the first 70 days of the Trump Administration, where national security matters have been discussed and deliberated, and to see whether or not there has been additional leakage of information in these unsecured channels. So, you know, Director Ratcliffe and Director Gabbard today and yesterday, I think they were dissembling a bit. I think they’re trying to figure out exactly what happened themselves. And maybe they did not put any classified information onto this Signal chat, but it’s clear that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, as well as Mike Waltz, who is the chairman of these principal committee meetings, and he is the one responsible for setting the agenda, inviting individuals to participate and to actually conduct this meeting. So, again, I think we’re going to learn a lot more, and hopefully we’re going to learn that not sensitive information has been actually compromised.”