Trump says 3rd term isn't a joke, despite term limit

Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich and independent Sen. Angus King questioned intelligence officials on the content included in the Signal chat about a U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen.

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, the journalist who was inadvertently added to the message chain, told ABC News Live anchor Linsey Davis it contained sensitive information about weapon systems and timing, among other things.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe repeatedly said during Tuesday's hearing that the chat did not contain classified information.

"So the attack sequencing and timing and weapons and targets, you don't consider should have been classified?" King asked Gabbard.

"I defer to the secretary of defense and the National Security Council on that question," she responded.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe, in the course of testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, discussed what he believed the intention was behind the Signal group chat discussing a U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen that was inadvertently shared with a journalist.

Ratcliffe said he believed the "national security adviser intended this to be as it should have been, a mechanism for coordinating between senior level officials, but not a substitute for using high side or classified communications for anything that would be classified."

Ratcliffe insisted that despite mentioning the name of a CIA officer in the chat, that officer was not operating under cover.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were grilled by Democratic Sen. Mark Warner on the Signal group chat mishap where a journalist was inadvertently added to a discussion on a U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen.

Both officials said there was no classified information on the chain.

"My communications, to be clear, in a Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information," Ratcliffe said.

Warner then pressed them to share the messages with the Senate committee if they contained no such information.

"If there was no classified material, share it with the committee. You can't have it both ways," he said.

Warner then asked FBI Director Kash Patel if his bureau will investigate the matter. Patel said he didn't have an update and was only briefed on the situation late Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, took a moment in his opening statement during Tuesday's hearing on worldwide threats to criticize the Trump administration's use of a Signal chat to discuss sensitive military information -- which a journalist was inadvertently added to.

"If this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired," Warner said.

"This is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information -- that this is not a one-off or a first time error," Warner said of the Trump administration.