Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11), along with fellow House Democratic military veterans, called for an investigation into Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and all of Trump’s national security officials who texted classified information on military operations in a Signal group chat with the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. Sherrill, a former Navy Helicopter Aircraft Commander and Russian policy officer, slammed the leaders for putting American service members in danger and debunked Trump and Hegseth’s claims that the information was not classified.

Click here to listen to Sherrill’s full remarks.

Full remarks, as delivered:

Hi, I’m Mikie Sherrill, I'm a former Navy helicopter pilot and a former Russian policy officer.

And I have to tell you, I remember as only a teenager when I entered into the Navy getting my first security brief and understanding how important security is to our military. 

As we've all heard for years, loose lips sink ships. And now we have at the top echelons of our government, people who don't seem to understand the need for any national security. We even, as you heard, had a report that someone was in Moscow. Having traveled myself to Moscow, I know the type of operational security that is expected there of military members. I know the briefings that I received. And to think that now we have a government that has so little concern for our security is really, I think, infuriating.

And to see all of these members here who have served, who know that their lives have been on the line and know that what the minimum that they should be able to count on is that their own government is not going to sell them out to foreign adversaries, that their own government is going to take their security seriously. 

Yes, to think that anybody is saying now that this was not secure information or this was not secret information or classified information, and anybody. Anybody, who knows anything about this area, and there are people on that Signal chain that know better, know that this is classified information. 

You don't give targeting information, you don't give time, and you put people in danger. People’s lives. American lives were in danger because of that Signal chain. The thought that you would be in Moscow and that nobody would be monitoring your text chains or that nobody would have access to that is really ludicrous in this day and age. I don't think anybody buys that either. 

So to think now that this is going to go uninvestigated or that Armed Services is not going to hold a hearing on this in the House, is really, I think, completely disregarding what just happened, the danger of the situation and the sense that I think we all have. That if this has been reported on, we need to know what else is going on, because somebody's got to clean house at the White House, and it's obviously not going to be the President who is now up to his old tricks. 

“Oh I'm declassifying it”. Well, too late, buddy. This was classified information. This put lives in danger. An investigation needs to take place. That is what we are calling for. And I think the House Armed Services Committee needs to hold hearings on this and get to the bottom of it so no more service members are put in danger.

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