'I gave you the soundbite!' GOP rep begs CNN host to stop asking her about war plans leak

25 March

One Republican member of Congress was visibly uncomfortable answering a CNN anchor's questions about the recent scandal involving more than a dozen Cabinet-level officials in President Donald Trump's administration sharing sensitive information on a group text thread using the encrypted messaging app Signal.

On Tuesday, CNN host Boris Sanchez interviewed Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) about the scandal, and there were several moments when the Florida congresswoman attempted to pivot to other topics when put in the position of having to publicly comment on the issue. Salazar refused to directly address Sanchez's point that "foreign adversaries can access the content of conversations on Signal," wouldn't say directly if she thought it was "appropriate to have those conversations on this app, as opposed to government systems" and whether she thought "the whole incident should be investigated."

"That is up to the White House to decide if they want to investigate or not. I think that we have a lot more other issues that we need to deal with," Salazar said. "We should not hone in on this issue. I'm sure they learned from what happened, and I'm sure they're going to be using other mechanisms ... I use Signal to communicate with people who are in very compromised situations. and it has been pretty good so far."

"I have nothing to say, but I think that we should talk about ... what's happening with immigration in this country, which is even more important," she added.

However, Sanchez wasn't as eager to move on in the segment, asking Salazar again if she would support a congressional investigation into the Signal scandal. When she said that the appropriate committees with jurisdiction over the Defense and Intelligence departments would make that decision, Sanchez pushed again and asked the Florida Republican if she would personally voice her support of such an investigation.

"I don't think that in Congress we should investigating and spending any time, energy or money on this issue," she said. "Something bigger that would have had other consequences, then I would say, yes. I'm not going to tell you yes when I mean no."

"You make the case that there are other more important issues, but I do wonder if you don't think that a secretary of defense or the advisor of the National Security Council potentially revealing sensitive information to a journalist constitutes a national security risk," Sanchez asked. "It could be by mistake, but it's still potentially putting Americans' lives at risk."

At that point, Salazar bristled, reminding Sanchez that they had "been five minutes [into] this" and that she "would like to spend the rest of the time of this hit talking about other things that are a little bit more consequential for the country."

"Congresswoman, I imagine that the lives of service members are certainly consequential, and whether they were put at risk by secretaries of defense and the national security advisor," Sanchez responded.

"I'm sure that they know it was a mistake. they're going to take further precautions next time," Salazar said. "Why don't we talk about immigration?"

"We will, we will. Is that sufficient accountability to you to recognize that someone made a mistake and moving on? because I don't see that same standard being held when other people have—"

"I gave you the soundbite already! I just told you," Salazar said.

Watch the full segment below, or by clicking this link.

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