During a hearing of the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) pointed out that files pertaining to former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination “show no evidence of a CIA conspiracy,” and said they should be focusing on Signal-Gate.
Crockett criticized Republicans at the hearing for trying to re-litigate whether agents from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) “lied 60 years ago,” and pointed out that they “should be having a hearing on the fact” that several Trump administration officials such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, were discussing military strikes against the Houthis, in a Signal group chat. Crockett said:
The reason that I had to make sure that I was here in — and specifically on today, is because on November 22, 1963, Texas 30th Congressional District — the district that I represent, became the site of one of the most tragic events in American political history. After being struck by the bullets of an assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, President Kennedy was rushed to Parkland Hospital where hardworking physicians from the UT Southwestern Medical Center worked tirelessly to resuscitate him.
“During the 48 hours between the moment President Kennedy was shot to the moment when Oswald was pronounced dead, Texas 30th Congressional District became the temporary seat of the U.S. government, the temporary seat of the Texas government, the site of the 35th President’s death, and the center of the world’s attention,” Crockett continued. “While I value government accountability and transparency — like most of my colleagues, nearly all the previously classified JFK assassination files are now public and show no evidence of a CIA conspiracy.”
Crockett added that she found it “funny” that Republican lawmakers were at the hearing “re-litigating whether CIA agents lied 60 years ago,” and accused them of not “doing anything about the CIA Director lying to Congress just six days ago.”
“We should be having a hearing on the fact that the unqualified Secretary of Defense, and other senior Trump officials, were carelessly discussing classified military plans over an unsecured Signal group chat,” Crockett continued. “And, instead of providing oversight over the administration’s handling of classified information, the Republicans have spent a week trying to convince the American people that the military plans were not classified. So, instead of giving a platform to conspiracy theories — and let me be clear, there are holes. I don’t want y’all to think that I don’t think there are holes, but when we are looking back, we need to look back so that we can look forward and hopefully do better.”
Crockett’s words come after Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, published an article in which he revealed that National Security Adviser Michael Waltz had inadvertently added him to a Signal chat called “Houthi PC small group.” Included in the group chat were people such as Vance, Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, among others.
In the article Goldberg shares how several members of the Trump administration had a back and forth discussion, days before carrying out military strikes on Houthis in Yemen.
On Saturday, March 15, Goldberg shares how Hegseth shared a message with members in the chat which “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.” Goldbert writes:
The only person to reply to the update from Hegseth was the person identified as the vice president. “I will say a prayer for victory,” Vance wrote. (Two other users subsequently added prayer emoji.)
According to the lengthy Hegseth text, the first detonations in Yemen would be felt two hour hence, at 1:45 p.m. eastern time. So I waited in my car in a supermarket parking lot. If this Signal chat was real, I reasoned, Houthi targets would soon be bombed. At about 1:55, I checked X and searched Yemen. Explosions were then being heard across Sanaa, the capital city.
In another article published by The Atlantic, the contents of Hegseth’s messages were shared:
At 11:44 a.m. eastern time, Hegseth posted in the chat, in all caps, “TEAM UPDATE.”
The text beneath this began, “TIME NOW (1144 et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.” Centcom, or Central Command, is the military’s combatant command for the Middle East. The Hegseth text continues:
• “1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”
• “1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME — also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)”
Per the outlet, Hegseth’s message to the group chat continued:
• “1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)”
• “1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)”
• “1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts — also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.”
• “MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)”
• “We are currently clean on OPSEC” —that is, operational security.
• “Godspeed to our Warriors.”
Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong previously reported that Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe “both said in sworn testimony to the Senate” that “no classified information or material” had been shared in the Signal group chat.
President Donald Trump has previously revealed that a National Security council staffer and aide for Waltz had been the one to added Goldberg to the group chat.
Read the full article here