{"id":444,"date":"2025-03-27T17:02:39","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T18:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/?p=444"},"modified":"2025-03-31T11:18:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T11:18:41","slug":"gomez-defends-question-about-hegseths-drinking-what-happened-doesnt-make-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/27\/gomez-defends-question-about-hegseths-drinking-what-happened-doesnt-make-sense\/","title":{"rendered":"Gomez defends question about Hegseth’s drinking: ‘What happened doesn’t make sense’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) on Thursday defended asking at a congressional hearing whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was drinking before sharing military attack plans in a Signal group chat of top-level national security officials, which mistakenly also included a prominent journalist.<\/p>\n

In an interview with CNN anchor John Berman, Gomez said he asked about the secretary\u2019s drinking habits because Hegseth sending the plans \u201cdoesn\u2019t make sense\u201d and he wanted to understand better why Hegseth did it. Gomez said he did not have any independent knowledge that would suggest Hegseth was drinking that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a question that I wanted to ask because what’s going on \u2014 what happened \u2014 doesn’t make sense, at any level,\u201d Gomez told Berman.<\/p>\n

The message Hegseth sent to the Signal group chat several hours ahead of a U.S. attack on the Houthis in Yemen included information about timing and weapons. The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently included in that chat, which apparently was created by national security adviser Mike Waltz.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere’s the fact,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cThe decision for him to put war plans on a Signal chat that’s not secure, hours before the operation, risked lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, one, you either don’t know that it’s not a secure app. Two, you don’t know that the Chinese and Russians are on your phone. Three, you don’t care,\u201d Gomez added.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr four \u2026 somehow, your inhibitions were lowered, and your decisionmaking was compromised,\u201d he continued. \u201cI just need to try to find out what’s the fact because our men and women deserve better.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the House Intelligence Committee\u2019s annual worldwide threats assessment hearing<\/a> on Wednesday, Gomez asked Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe \u2014 both of whom were in the Signal group chat in question \u2014 whether they know \u201cwhether Pete Hegseth had been drinking before he leaked classified information.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question provoked an angry response from Ratcliffe: \u201cThat\u2019s an offensive line of question. The answer is, no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabbard said she doesn\u2019t \u201chave any knowledge\u201d of Hegseth\u2019s \u201cpersonal habits.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hegseth’s drinking habits had been the topic of intense scrutiny during his confirmation process, and Gomez said the topic was top of mind for constituents.<\/p>\n

He also said in the Thursday interview that the administration\u2019s response to the Signal leak story has been inconsistent, and he speculated, without evidence, whether Trump administration officials were \u201ctrying to cover\u201d for Hegseth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey first denied that it occurred. Then they said, ‘No, it’s not classified information. That wasn’t released.’ Then \u2026 all of a sudden, the screenshots of the conversation were released,\u201d Gomez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo none of this makes sense,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt doesn’t pass the smell test. They’re trying to cover for Secretary Hegseth, and it’s shameful. They should just be straight and stop lying to the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) on Thursday defended asking at a congressional hearing whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was drinking before sharing military attack plans in a Signal group chat of top-level national security officials, which mistakenly also included a prominent journalist. In an interview with CNN anchor John Berman, Gomez said he asked about the secretary\u2019s drinking habits because Hegseth sending the plans \u201cdoesn\u2019t make sense\u201d and he wanted to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions\/445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}