Sen. Ruben Gallego blasts administration over response to Signal scandal, missing soldiers

PHOENIX – U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona said Thursday the Trump administration’s handling of the Signal scandal and missing soldiers in Lithuania is “horrible” for military morale and national security.

“What’s happening here is just absolute amateur hour. Secretary of Defense [Pete] Hegseth was never ready, was not qualified for this job. We all knew it, we had all said it repeatedly, and now it’s, you know, born to be true,” Gallego told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Gallego is one of many Democrats, including fellow Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, calling for Hegseth’s ouster after a journalist was inadvertently added to a group chat in Signal prior to March 15 airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen and later reported that Hegseth shared attack plans with other officials in the unsecured messaging app.

Pete Hegseth was never qualified to lead our troops. He's proving it right now.

It's not just embarrassing, it's dangerous. pic.twitter.com/eWVeNXSFr8

— Senator Ruben Gallego (@SenRubenGallego) March 27, 2025

The Atlantic published an account of what editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg witnessed on Monday while withholding details of the attack plan. However, after administration officials denied that classified information was shared in the Signal chat, the media outlet published screenshots on Wednesday showing that Hegseth posted the exact times of warplane launches, strike packages and targets.

Ruben Gallego says it was ‘lucky’ Signal chat wasn’t intercepted

“The fact that they’re just continuing with this lie instead of accepting the truth and showing actual leadership, it’s just a horrible example for the rest of our armed services,” said Gallego, a Marine veteran who saw combat in Iraq.

One day before the strikes, the Department of Defense cautioned personnel about the vulnerability of Signal, specifically that Russia was attempting to hack the app, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. In addition, the app has an auto-delete function that some say can be used to skirt open records laws.

“We got lucky that Houthis are not as sophisticated, potentially, as other enemies, or that some of their allies did not intercept our [intelligence]. … This could have been really bad,” Gallego said.

“It’s not that hard to figure out when you start saying where our platforms are coming from, what time they’re launching, and when you say they’re attacking the Houthis because your freaking Signal chat group is called Houthis PC Group.”

Ruben Gallego calls Donald Trump ‘out of touch’

Gallego also questioned why President Donald Trump said he hadn’t been briefed about four U.S. troops who went missing while on a training mission in Lithuania after a reporter asked him about it Wednesday.

The Army said recovery efforts were underway after the armored vehicle the soldiers were in was found submerged in a body of water.

“This is setting up for a horrible scenario when it comes to our national security,” Gallego said. “The fact that the president is out of touch, that he’s helping these guys cover up for what essentially is a crime, and the fact that he’s not holding anybody accountable could even become more and more problematic in the future.”

Gallego, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Veterans’ Affairs committees, believes the administration’s actions have the potential to damage military morale.

“I’m hearing a lot from men and women that I served with, people that are in the military, that they’re very concerned that this administration, it just doesn’t really care and is more worried about how they look than the actual operational security of their missions,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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