'Not here to defend Hillary Clinton’s e-mails': CNN host busts MAGA rep’s intel leak defense

25 March

Images via Screengrab / CNN.

On Tuesday, March 25, the Senate Intelligence Committee held a hearing focused on national security matters. And senators questioned CIA Director John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard.

The hearing came a day after a bombshell revelation from The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, who was wrongly given access to a Signal group chat describing plans for a military operation against Houthis in Yemen.

After the hearing, CNN's Brianna Keilar interviewed Rep. Brian Mast (R-Florida), the Donald Trump ally who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The exchange became testy at times when Keilar pressed Mast on national security concerns — including whether or not Signal is appropriate for discussing classified information.

Keilar asked Mast, "Would you talk about upcoming military operations, weapons that will be used, targets that are going to be hit? Excuse me, including people attacked, sequencing that is going to take place, on Signal?"

The GOP congressman responded, "Yeah, I may. I don't really use Signal much for myself. But again, going back in time to if I was doing planning operations as a part of the military. Yes, there's a very specific difference about, is it classified or is it sensitive? And if I need to speak to somebody in a different environment where they're not co-located with me — and I want to have a conversation — I might be using Signal. Why? Because it's authorized."

Keilar, however, doubled down on her line of questioning, asking Mast if "members of the military should feel comfortable about pre-strike details on Signal?"

Mast told Keilar, "It depends on what you're talking about….. It depends on: Are you creating an operational liability?" And Keilar reminded him that the group chat Goldberg described in The Atlantic "did create an operational liability" by "talking about strikes that are going to be happening in two hours."

During the interview, Mast tried to deflect attention from Hegseth by noting the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal of 2016. But Keilar wouldn't let Mast be evasive, saying, "I'm not here to defend Hillary Clinton's e-mails…. Why not have an investigation of what has happened here? Because there are many questions that have not been answered."

Watch the full video below or at this link.

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