Intelligence officials appear before Senate to address national security threats

Top intelligence officials in President Donald Trump's administration will appear before Congress in back-to-back hearings this week. This is the first opportunity since they took office to testify about the threats facing the country and what the government is doing to counter them.

FBI Director Kash Patel, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard are among those testifying this Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee and Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee.

'Inadvertent' journalist

This March 25 hearing comes just a day after news broke that several senior national security officials in the Trump administration, including Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, sent war plans for military strikes in Yemen to a group chat on the Signal app. Included in this "safe" group was the journalist editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg.

The journalist, who was inadvertently added to the message chain, told ABC News Live anchor Linsey Davis that it contained sensitive information about weapons systems and timing, among other things.

The situation has been the story of the day, and debates in the Senate have mostly concerned this situation.

Classified or unclassified information, the eternal debate

While the news made hundreds of headlines in the world's major media, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were also questioned by Democratic Sen. Mark Warner about the Signal group chat mishap.

Both assured on more than one occasion during the hearing that the chat did not contain classified information.

For his part Ratcliffe, in the course of his testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said he believed the "national security advisor intended this to be 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 official in the chat, that official was not operating incognito.

Both officials said there was no classified information in the chain. "My communications to be clear in the Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information," the CIA chief said.

Criticism of intelligence officials

During the hearings, Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) heavily criticized the CIA director over the group chat about Yemen in a heated exchange.

"This sloppiness, this incompetence, this disrespect for our intelligence agencies and the personnel who work for them is entirely unacceptable. It's an embarrassment," the Democrat said. "You need to do better!" he added indignantly.

Also, Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich and Independent Sen. Angus King likewise questioned intelligence officials about the content included in the Signal chat.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, took a moment in his opening statement during Tuesday's hearing on global threats to criticize the Trump administration's use of communications platforms to share sensitive information.

Warner called the Signal chat leak a "sloppy, careless, incompetent" act.

The importance of threat hearings

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard arguments Monday over the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of suspected Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador without due process.

The annual global threats hearings offer a glimpse into the Trump administration's refocusing of priorities, which officials from various agencies have said are concentrated on countering the scourge of fentanyl and fighting violent crime, human trafficking and illegal immigration.