A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Everyone can now read that group chat among senior national security officials who were discussing airstrikes in Yemen.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
But that doesn't mean the story is over. Democrats say they still have questions about how the Trump administration is handling national security. Republicans, meanwhile, say it's time to focus on what they are calling a successful bombing campaign against the Houthis in Yemen.
MARTÍNEZ: For more, we're joined by NPR's Greg Myre. Greg, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee really grilled top national security officials yesterday. What should we take away from that?
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Yeah, A, shortly before the hearing, The Atlantic magazine published details of the group chat on March 15 among the top security officials. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave the timing for the attacks two hours before they began, and he laid out a timeline for the warplanes and the drones and how they would take off and when. Now, Democrats said this was a major security failure, providing details of an imminent military strike on the publicly available messaging app Signal. And, as we know, they included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic. Here's Democrat Jason Crow of Colorado, who served as an Army ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JASON CROW: It is completely outrageous to me that administration officials come before us today with impunity. Nobody is willing to come to us and say, this was wrong. This was a breach of security, and we won't do it again.
MARTÍNEZ: So how are Trump administration officials responding?
MYRE: Well, CIA Director John Ratcliffe essentially said there's just nothing to see here.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHN RATCLIFFE: I used an appropriate channel to communicate sensitive information. It was permissible to do so. I didn't transfer any classified information.
MYRE: And Defense Secretary Hegseth, writing on X, was also adamant that there was no classified information released, and other officials have said the same. Now, President Trump has been saying the same thing. He was a bit more ambiguous when asked Wednesday evening if he still thought that no classified information was disclosed. He said, quote, "That's what I've heard. I don't know. I'm not sure. You have to ask the various people involved."
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So if there's no formal investigation, I mean, what's going to happen now?
MYRE: Well, Democrats say they'll keep pressing for details in this particular case, like whether national security officials have been using Signal for other chats because, you know, it's more convenient, though clearly not as secure as government communication networks. More broadly, the Democrats are questioning Trump's foreign policy. Trump has boasted about efforts to arrange ceasefires in Gaza and the Ukraine war, but the Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has collapsed. Russia and Ukraine are still attacking each other despite U.S. mediation efforts. So these haven't been quick successes that Trump had hoped for.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So the bombing campaign in Yemen that the Trump administration say was successful - enough evidence so far to say that?
MYRE: A, not yet. Now, the U.S. forces have bombed the Houthis now for nearly two weeks, but we're getting relatively little information. Trump's team says the campaign will be much more robust than it was under the Biden administration and that they'll halt the Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, which the Houthis describe as solidarity with the Palestinians. But the Houthis have proved very tough, and it's just not clear whether a U.S. bombing campaign, even if it's sustained for a while, can end these attacks and return shipping to normal levels.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, that's NPR's Greg Myre. Greg, thanks.
MYRE: Sure thing, A.
MARTÍNEZ: And we'll note here that NPR's CEO, Katherine Maher, chairs the board of the nonprofit Signal Foundation. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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