CNN host Boris Sanchez and Florida Rep. María Elvira Salazar got into a briefly heated exchange Tuesday while discussing The Atlantic’s stunning group chat leak that’s forced a spotlight onto the Trump administration’s handling of sensitive military information.
“You make the case that there are other more important issues, but I do wonder if you don’t think that a secretary of defense or the adviser of the National Security Council potentially revealing sensitive information to a journalist, constitutes a national security risk,” a clearly impatient Sanchez told the Republican representative.
“It could be by mistake, but it’s still potentially putting Americans’ lives at risk. If it wasn’t Jeffrey Goldberg, if it had been someone else,” he pondered, prompting a seemingly agitated Salazar to immediately quip back: “We have been five minutes [on] this. Your hit is around seven or eight. I would like to spend the rest of the time of this hit talking about other things that are a little bit more consequential for the country.”
“Congresswoman, I imagine that the lives of service members are certainly consequential,” Sanchez retorted, to which Salazar replied: “Thank God almighty that the operation was highly successful and we were able to go after Houthis, who happened to be pretty bad people because they’re being backed by even worse people, which are the Iranians.
“So why don’t we concentrate on that? We recognize that it was a mistake. I’m sure that they know it was a mistake. They’re going to take further precautions next time. Why don’t we talk about immigration?”
Sanchez proceeded to repeatedly probe the congresswoman on whether or not she believed admitting “someone made a mistake” was “sufficient accountability” for the party and its future, with Salazar concluding: “I’m telling you that they recognized what happened.
“I’m sure they’re going to take measures for next time [for] this not to happen. These are patriots. They’re just starting the job. These are people that know what they’re doing,” Salazar continued. “They are soldiers. They have been in the military. And I am sure that Mike Waltz, who is highly respected and highly responsible, is looking at every single corner to make sure that this will not happen to him again.”
Salazar added she knew Waltz “very well” and he is a “personal friend.”
In an explosive essay Monday, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg claimed he was added to a Signal group chat titled “Houthi PC Small Group” by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. The group, which included several top security officials like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and others, appeared to be discussing sensitive military information regarding a strike on Houthi targets in Yemen that ultimately took place on March 15.
When addressing the situation the next day, President Donald Trump said he’s instructed Waltz to look into the situation and denied that any “classified” information was discussed on the text chain.
