This story was reported and written by our media partner the Virginia Mercury.
Mounting questions over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s handling of classified information and his role in ordering a lethal strike on alleged Venezuelan drug-running boats in the Caribbean have prompted a renewed push this week for his removal — a demand led by U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who says the latest revelations show Hegseth put U.S. pilots and service members at risk.
Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said findings released by the Pentagon’s inspector general Thursday show Hegseth shared classified targeting information about planned military actions in a Signal group chat that included at least one journalist.
Combined with the administration’s shifting account of a Sept. 2 strike, Warner said the pattern points to what he called dangerous and chaotic judgment at the top of the Defense Department.
“His actions potentially put pilots in harm’s way,” Warner told The Mercury on Thursday, a day after publicly stating that Hegseth “endangered the lives” of air crews aboard the USS Harry S. Truman. “Don’t believe me, believe the inspector general,” Warner said.
The inspector general’s report concluded that Hegseth violated Defense Department policies by sharing operational information about U.S. strikes in Yemen using his personal phone and in a chat that included his family members and a civilian journalist.
The investigators found Hegseth “failed to protect classified operational details” and created “unnecessary risk” to U.S. forces.
Warner said the latest findings matched concerns long expressed by families in Hampton Roads.
“I heard from families in Norfolk who were, frankly, pissed off that their sons and daughters could have been put in harm’s way,” he said. He added that he plans to return to the region to hear directly from sailors.
Caribbean strike under congressional investigation
The report arrived as Congress intensifies its probe into the Sept. 2 strike on two boats the administration said were suspected of ferrying drugs from Venezuela.
The mission killed 12 people and has faced scrutiny over a second strike carried out against individuals already in the water — a scenario that could violate international law if they were no longer considered combatants.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday the follow-on strike could rise “to the level of a war crime if it’s true.”
Warner emphasized Thursday that Hegseth’s conflicting statements deepen the concern.
“At first he pumped his chest and said it was great that he watched this whole bombing incident take place on Sept. 2, where 12 people were on the boat,” Warner said.
“He came out subsequently that while he offered an order to kill them all — we don’t know was that verbal, was it written — that changed and (he) said no second strike, then changed his position, and said there was a second strike, but it was ordered by Admiral Bradley, who I will be meeting with today to try to get to the bottom of it,” Warner said, referring to Admiral Frank Bradley, the commander of the United States Special Operations Command.
Warner added that the confusion has put U.S. personnel “in potential legal jeopardy” under international standards.
Hegseth has publicly rejected reports that the Sept. 2 operation was mishandled, calling a Washington Post account of the second strike “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory,” in a post on X.
“As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.’ The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people,” he wrote.
Hegseth has similarly downplayed the significance of his Signal messages, insisting in one exchange that “nobody was texting war plans and that’s all I have to say about that,” and later mocking descriptions of the chat by noting it included “no names” and “no targets” and calling them “some really shi— war plans.”
Warner said Thursday that the presidential administration’s evolving account on the Sept. 2 strikes has only made the situation worse.
“We have seen two or three different answers from the president,” he said. “It is again symptomatic of this administration’s national security, which is chaotic, at best, and downright making Americans less safe across the board.”
The senator added that the administration could have quelled most of the controversy by releasing the full, unedited strike video from the start.
IG findings on Signal chats intensify concerns
The inspector general’s report on Hegseth’s Signal use, Warner added, fits into what he views as a broader pattern of politicization and carelessness with sensitive information across the Defense Department.
“We were striking against the Houthis in Yemen, and Secretary Hegseth gave out all of this information on an unsecure line, using his private phone that included not only security officials, but family members,” he said.
“This was clearly classified information, and while the Secretary of Defense has the ability to declassify information, he made no indication, at that time, or even afterwards, that he went through any kind of declassification process.”
He compared Hegseth’s handling of classified material to President Donald Trump’s argument that he could declassify documents “by thinking about it.”
Warner presses Republicans to join public oversight push
Asked Thursday what concrete steps Congress and the administration should take to prevent similar breaches, Warner pointed directly to oversight — and to Republican colleagues he says have expressed worries privately but not publicly.
“It would start with congressional oversight,” he told The Mercury. “I have begged my Republican friends, ‘Hey, we have got to push back on this.’ So far, they’ve been privately concerned, but not willing to go public.”
He said he is encouraged that the Senate Armed Services Committee at least plans to fully investigate the Caribbean strike.
“We need to get to the bottom of all of this malfeasance, and the sooner the better,” he said. Until then, he added, “I can’t guarantee those families that their loved ones are as safe as they should be.”
Warner said the stakes are especially significant for Virginia, home to the world’s largest naval base and thousands of sailors whose deployments hinge on the decisions of senior Pentagon leadership.
“Our sailors deserve a clear explanation,” he said, particularly on whether the Sept. 2 mission targeted narco-traffickers or something less clear-cut.
“Are they drug boats, are there narco traffickers on those boats? If there are, why don’t you interdict them and show the world rather than simply blowing them up — to make sure the sailors are not doing something that’s inappropriate?”