President Donald Trump on Tuesday downplayed the texting of sensitive plans for a military strike against Yemen’s Houthis this month to a group chat that included a journalist, saying it was “the only glitch in two months” of his administration as Democratic lawmakers heaped criticism on the administration for handling highly sensitive information carelessly. Trump told NBC News that the lapse “turned out not to be a serious one,” and articulated his continued support for national security adviser Mike Waltz, who mistakenly added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to the chain that included 18 senior administration officials discussing planning for the strike. “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said in the NBC interview. But the use of messaging app Signal to discuss a sensitive operation has opened the administration to blistering criticism from Democratic lawmakers who expressed outrage at the White House’s and senior administration officials’ insistence that no classified information was shared. Senior administration officials have struggled to explain why the publicly available app was used to discuss such a delicate matter. One Democrat calls the mistake ‘an embarrassment’ One participant in the Signal chat, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, acknowledged during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday that she was traveling overseas during the exchange. She wouldn’t say whether she was using her personal or government-issued phone because the matter is under review by the White House National Security Council. Both Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who also was a participant in the Signal exchange and also testified at Tuesday’s intelligence hearing, faced blistering criticism from lawmakers. “This is an embarrassment,” said Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat. “This is utterly unprofessional. There’s been no apology. There’s been no recognition of the gravity of this error.” In the run-up to his 2016 election victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump urged criminal prosecution of the former secretary of state for communicating about classified information with her aides on a private email server she set up. The matter was investigated, but the FBI ultimately recommended against charges. None were brought. Clinton was among Democrats this week to criticize Trump administration officials’ use of Signal. “You have got to be kidding me,” Clinton said in an X post that spotlighted The Atlantic article. Trump also faced charges for mishandling classified information at his Mar-a-Lago resort following his first White House term. Those charges were later dismissed. Administration says Democrats shouldn’t be outraged But on Tuesday, top administration officials were insistent the Democratic outrage about the matter was misplaced. On Capitol Hill, Ratcliffe and Gabbard told lawmakers that no classified information was included in the texts about U.S. attack plans in the message chain. Democrats pushed back, saying the leaked military plans show a sloppy disregard for security, but Ratcliffe insisted no rules were violated. “My communications to be clear in the Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information,” Ratcliffe told lawmakers in the hearing that was supposed to be focused on global security threats. Facing heated questions from Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, Gabbard said there’s a difference between “inadvertent” releases of information and intentional leaks. “There was no classified material that was shared,” Gabbard said. Warner, though, said the lapse in security could have cost […]