Trump admin's 'sloppy' Signal leak put Democrats back on offense, Sen Warner says

The Trump administration's Signal group chat leak was a "sloppy" move that put Democrats on offense for the first time since President Donald Trump's inauguration, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said Sunday.

"This was so inappropriate. This was so sloppy. You know, Signal [is] fine, but don't put classified information. If this had been any military officer or intelligence officer and they'd done that, they'd be fired," Warner said.

Warner fell short of stating that the information in the group chat made it "criminal," as his colleague Sen. Richard Blumenthal has claimed.

The encrypted messaging app Signal is now under the spotlight after it was revealed that top national security leaders had been in a group chat discussing plans to strike terrorists in Yemen. The chat also mistakenly included the Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. The chat was made public by a first-hand account of the group chat published by Goldberg in an article last week.

Years before the Signal leak involving the Trump administration and subsequent outrage from Democrats and other critics, Democrats had repeatedly touted Signal as an additional precautionary measure against potential hacks.

Democrats have emphasized in the fallout from last week's leak that they do not object to the Trump administration's use of Signal, only the sharing of classified information via the app.

Fox News' Emma Colton contributed to this report