Shaheen Statement on Inspector General Report Findings on Secretary Hegseth

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement on the findings of an Inspector General report on U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s use of an unsecure Signal chat to share classified information:

“From day one, we’ve known that Pete Hegseth was never qualified to lead the U.S. Department of Defense, and the chaos that he’s created at the Pentagon has proven this correct time and again – that's why I voted against his nomination. The Inspector General’s findings confirmed what our military leadership has already said: By sharing air strike plans that had been labeled classified on Signal, the Secretary endangered the lives of American service members and put our military readiness at risk through his recklessness.

“It should go without saying that such sensitive operational information is to be handled with the utmost discretion. Secretary Hegseth’s unsecured group chat could have given our adversaries the ability to target our troops with dangerous accuracy. Secretary Hegseth has failed at his most basic duty, to protect American service members.

“Secretary Hegseth knows well that any uniformed officer who was found to have committed the same reckless violations would face swift and severe punishment. There must not be a double-standard for the Secretary, and he must be held accountable. This gross incompetence and his inability to take responsibility as a leader demonstrate that Secretary Hegseth should not be in charge of the world’s largest fighting force and that he cannot be trusted to make life or death decisions for our military and country.”

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