WASHINGTON – Texas’ Republican U.S. senators are standing by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth amid criticism over his use of the messaging app Signal to share sensitive information.
U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn backed Hegseth’s confirmation after President Donald Trump tapped him to lead the defense department. Democrats attacked him as unqualified for the high-level post and raised allegations of past excessive drinking, including on the job.
Hegseth dismissed those allegations as “anonymous smears” and said he would not drink while running the Pentagon.
Cruz this week described Hegseth, a decorated veteran, as a “change agent” with a mandate to refocus the department on “ing the war fighter” and ending “the politicization and woke ideology” that was damaging the military’s readiness.
“It was doing real damage to our recruiting,” Cruz said. “And I think we’ve already seen recruiting numbers rise significantly as young men and women in Texas and across the country are eager to defend this nation with a secretary of defense who’s going to have their backs.”
Republicans have cited improved military recruiting figures as evidence Americans are eager to sign up under Trump’s leadership. Former Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told Fox News that upward trend started before the election.
The New York Times and Associated Press have reported Hegseth created a Signal messaging chat in which he shared details about a strike against Houthi militants, similar to information he sent in a separate chain with top national security officials.
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added to that first group chat that was created by Mike Waltz, national security adviser. The Atlantic published the contents of the chat in which Hegseth shared weapons systems and a timeline for the attack on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
Critics slammed Hegseth for sharing such information over a commercially available messaging app, saying U.S. service could have been at risk if adversaries obtained the information.
They’ve also pointed to Republican outrage over Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
House Democrats proposed a resolution seeking more information about the use of Signal by Trump istration officials that was set to be considered Wednesday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The resolution didn’t come up after House Republican leaders included a provision in a rule adopted this week blocking such resolutions for at least the next few months.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, a member of the committee, said Congress needs to exercise its oversight role by investigating what happened.
She criticized Hegseth as “incompetent” and “a national security risk.”
“If our allies decide that they don’t want to share information with us that would be perfectly warranted in this environment and honestly that keeps everyone less safe,” Crockett said.
Cruz and Cornyn defended Hegseth this week.
Cruz said it was “obviously a screw up” to inadvertently add a journalist to the first chat group, but it’s not surprising that senior national security leaders were communicating about national security matters.
He said Signal has been used by government officials, Democrats and Republicans alike.
It’s “embarrassing” a journalist was added to the thread but the underlying substance showed Trump, Hegseth and the rest of the national security team doing their job to confront America’s enemies, Cruz said.
“It was President Trump attacking the Houthis, radical Islamic terrorists who for many months had been attacking American ships, attacking shipping lanes in the Suez Canal and the Biden istration had done essentially nothing about it,” Cruz said.
Cornyn said earlier this week he retains confidence in Hegseth. He said he s an inspector general investigation into the use of commercial messaging apps such as Signal.
“Some of these had already been pre-loaded onto government equipment, government computers and cell phones and the like,” Cornyn said. “I think we need to get a good handle on this, because we know our adversaries are relentless in of trying to steal any information they can about our national security.”
He said it’s “a little confusing” at the moment what communication avenues are authorized and which are not.
“I understand why the Department of Defense or some of the intelligence community don’t really know what the rules are and we need to firm that up and make that absolutely clear.” Cornyn said.