Press Releases

Gomez: “The ‘I don’t recall’ [defense] doesn’t pass the smell test”

Watch his full remarks HERE.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – At a House Intelligence Committee hearing this week, Rep. Jimmy Gomez (CA-34) grilled the Trump administration’s intelligence leaders for using an unsecured Signal chat to coordinate a real-time military operation. NSA Director Mike Waltz accidentally added a journalist to the chat—who then broke the story. Officials denied the report, but the journalist later posted screenshots of the chat, exposing them. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared text messages including classified information about weapons, strike targets and timing, raising serious questions about whether officials broke protocol or the law.

In an exchange with Director Gabbard, Rep. Gomez questioned her credibility after she told the Senate Intelligence Committee the day before that she couldn’t recall any discussions about targets or operational details. When asked if she stood by that testimony, Gabbard replied, “Yes, I stand by that response.”

Rep. Gomez said, “You’ve been in office 43 days. This was the first major military operation using lethal force of the Trump administration—something of this magnitude is not something you forget. The ‘I don’t recall’ [defense] doesn’t pass the smell test. …A lot of folks in this administration promised to drain the swamp, but you became that swamp in a matter of days, not months.”

Rep. Gomez also raised concerns about Secretary Hegseth and questioned whether he had been drinking at the time classified information was shared—given his past behavior. Director Ratcliffe got defensive, when asked directly whether he had any knowledge of Secretary Hegseth’s judgment being compromised. Rep. Gomez quickly reclaimed his time and fired back, “I have huge respect for the CIA and for our men and women in uniform. But this is a question on every American’s mind. … Of course, we want to know if his judgement was compromised. Your people asked the same thing about General Austin was compromised after a heart issue.”

Gomez concluded by underscoring the gravity of using insecure messaging platforms like Signal to discuss sensitive operations: “Here’s the thing. We’ve been briefed in this committee about Signal. The most secure…phone call. The least secure…text messaging. And we know the Russians and Chinese are on your phone.”

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