Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should be fired after he unveiled strike plans in Yemen against the Houthis over an unsecure Signal group chat.
When asked if he agrees with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s (D-N.Y.) call for Hegseth’s ouster, Schumer concurred.
“He should be fired. I agree,” Schumer said while exiting a press conference warning Republicans against Social Security cuts.
“He should be fired,” he added.
Schumer’s call also follows similar ones by Sens. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.).
Warner also called for national security adviser Michael Waltz to resign.
Hegseth has come under criticism for laying out sensitive information over the Signal messaging application, which is not considered a government approved platform for discussions that type of material.
Included in his messages were specifics regarding when fighter jets would take off and drone strikes would drop over the region. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) is among those who believe that information should have been classified.