U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) slammed his Republican colleagues in Congress as “cowards” for refusing to hold President Donald Trump’s administration accountable over the Signal leak scandal. The controversy involves national defense and intelligence officials accidentally leaking war plans to a reporter in a group chat.
During an appearance on CNN, Anderson Cooper asked Moulton if the case was closed, as the White House had suggested, and if he still believed Pete Hegseth should be removed as Secretary of Defense. Moulton responded firmly, saying, “Absolutely not.”
Cooper continued, “Because they’ve done nothing to show the American public and most importantly, our troops and intelligence professionals who risk their lives every day. They’ve done nothing to show that this will not happen again. This is a gross violation of the law, and it put American pilots in danger. It literally opened up where they will be and when over enemy targets, so that those enemies might have shot them down. And the Secretary of Defense needs to make it clear how this will not happen again, because he expects everyone under his command to follow the laws that he grossly violated.”
The CNN anchor also brought up a report from The Wall Street Journal about National Security Adviser Mike Waltz using Signal for other Cabinet-level discussions, including talks about peace between Russia and Ukraine. He asked Moulton if there was anything Congress could do about the situation.
Moulton replied, “It’s certainly possible if our Republican colleagues weren’t total cowards and unafraid … to confront this administration.” He added, “This puts American lives at risk. The troops are in danger because of this behavior. And so it absolutely has to stop.”
He went on to explain the legal violations involved in the Signal chats. “There are two major laws that putting these Signal chats in service violate. The first is classified information. It’s obvious that they’re discussing classified materials, and this administration does not take government secrets seriously. But the second is these presidential records laws, where they have to maintain records of the decisions that they make.”
Moulton concluded by calling the administration “lawless” and said, “It just disregards those basic laws… and that’s going to continue unless this is put to a stop.”
You can watch the segment below from CNN.
