Trump's joint chiefs nominee says he would have stopped Signal chat

President Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. military’s highest-ranking officer on Tuesday asserted that he would have stopped a Signal chat among high-ranking officials last month had he been in the group.

Retired Lt. Gen. Daniel "Razin" Caine, the nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, largely side-stepped questions from Senate Armed Services Committee Democrats about his views on the Signal chat controversy.

But he did allow that officials should always protect the “element of surprise,” a nod toward concerns that Trump officials breached security protocols in the scandal.

Under questioning from several panel Democrats, Caine was repeatedly asked about how he would have responded to the leak, which happened after national security advisor Michael Waltz accidentally invited a journalist to a Signal chat group.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth then shared sensitive information with the group about upcoming U.S. airstrikes against Houthi militants in Yemen. 

“Knowing what you do, about the substance of that conversation, how would you feel?” Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) asked Caine.

Caine replied that “we all can agree that we need to always protect the element of surprise,” later saying, “that's a key and essential thing that we owe our war-fighters.”

And when Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), asked what Caine would do if he saw classified information, war plans or tactical information on an unclassified chain of communication, he said he would “weigh in and stop it if I was a part of it.”

He stressed that he has “always communicated proper information in the proper channels.”

The Trump administration, while not denying the chat took place, has pushed back against assertions from lawmakers and former defense officials that anything discussed in the text could be considered classified or "war plans."

But critics argue the facts relayed in the chat — including a timeline of when the airstrikes in Yemen would take place and with what weapons — was deeply sensitive information, should not have been shared over an unsecured platform, and could have put service members in harm's way if it fell into the wrong hands.

Multiple lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for an investigation into the matter.

Caine’s hearing comes after Trump blindsided the Pentagon in February by firing seven top officials including then-Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, prior to his current position, had advocated that Brown be fired along with all other "woke" generals involved with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the Defense Department.

Critics of the move worry that in nominating Caine, whom Trump has extolled as a loyalist, the president was seeking to fill top DOD leadership positions with those that wouldn’t dissent from his opinion, slanting the historically apolitical U.S. military in his favor.

“General Brown's dismissal reveals, once again, President Trump's intention to install yes men and women with fealty to him and not to the Constitution or the American people,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said during the hearing.

Caine, however, vowed to serve apolitically, saying that he would not become a “yes man” for Trump if confirmed, and pledging to follow U.S. laws and the Constitution. He also said he was willing to be fired and would push back if Trump asked him to carry out illegal orders. 

“I've always strived to do the right thing and that's not going to change now,” Caine said.

Caine denied a story in which Trump recounted meeting Caine and a sergeant in Iraq in 2018. Trump said one of them told him, “I love you, sir. I think you're great, sir. I'll kill for you, sir” and then they put on Make America Great Again (MAGA) hats. 

But Caine said he has never worn a MAGA hat. 

“For 34 years, I've upheld my oath of office and the responsibilities of my commission,” Caine said. “I went back and listened to those tapes and I think the president was actually talking about somebody else and I’ve never worn any political merchandise or said anything to that effect.”

Caine, a retired F-16 pilot, is not a typical pick for the nation’s top military advisor. As he never reached the rank of a four-star general and has never led a branch of one of the military services or a major combatant command — things the choice for Joint Chiefs chair has always done — he will require the first presidential waiver for the role.

Caine acknowledged that he was an unconventional nominee but noted “these are unconventional times.”