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‘The White House is in denial’: A Republican rejects the latest group-chat deflections

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A Republican lawmaker is rejecting White House efforts to downplay the inadvertent sharing of military attack plans with a journalist on an unclassified group chat.

“The White House is in denial that this was not classified or sensitive data,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a former Air Force brigadier general and member of the House Armed Services Committee, on Wednesday. “They should just own up to it and preserve credibility.”

Bacon’s criticism is a sign that the explanations and deflections coming from President Donald Trump’s administration could be falling flat as new details emerge about the stunning disclosures to Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg.

Bacon spoke soon after The Atlantic published additional excerpts of the Signal group chat involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, national security adviser Michael Waltz and other top Trump aides. In those messages, Hegseth shares detailed timing, targeting and weapons information for a military strike on Houthi forces in Yemen roughly a half-hour before they were set to begin.

Hegseth and other members of the Trump administration are denying that any classified information was shared.

Testifying Wednesday to the House Intelligence Committee, Gabbard said “it was a mistake” that Goldberg was added to the chat but that “there were no sources, methods, locations or war plans that were shared.” She called it a “standard update … provided alongside updates that were given to foreign partners in the region.”

Waltz said much the same Wednesday in an X post after the new Atlantic reporting: “No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS.”

One crucial administration ally on Capitol Hill, Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton, also echoed that response Wednesday.

“There’s no locations listed there. There are no sources and methods. There’s no specific targets,” Cotton (R-Ark.) told reporters. “Certainly, there’s nothing called war plans, which was an embellishment and exaggeration by known left-wing partisan opponents of the president.”

Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a former Army helicopter pilot, rebutted Republicans in a sharply worded X posting Wednesday: “Pete Hegseth is a f*cking liar. This is so clearly classified info he recklessly leaked that could’ve gotten our pilots killed. He needs to resign in disgrace immediately.”

Ben Jacobs and Amy Mackinnon contributed to this report.

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Congress

Rep. Mike Lawler ‘accosted’ by Sen. Rand Paul’s son

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Rep. Mike Lawler on Wednesday said he was accosted by the son of Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday night with a 10-minute “reprehensible” antisemitic rant.

The New York Republican told reporters the interaction occurred when he was on his way to a restaurant with at least one journalist. He said William Paul approached him and shouted at him and said he would blame “your people” if Rep. Thomas Massie loses his reelection bid.

“My people?” Lawler asked.

“Yeah, you Jews,” Paul replied.

Lawler said he told Paul that he isn’t Jewish and the senator’s son apologized before launched into an antisemitic diatribe.

“At one point, he said that he hates Jews and hates gays and doesn’t care if they die. And I think that’s fucking disgusting,” Lawler said.

The conversation, he said, ended soon thereafter, with Paul flipping him off and tripping on his way out the door.

In a post to X late Wednesday afternoon, Paul said he “had too much to drink and said some things that don’t represent who I really am.”

“I’m sorry and today I am seeking help for my drinking problem,” he added. A spokesperson for Sen. Rand Paul did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“I think it speaks to a larger issue, obviously, in society and what we’re seeing among young people and what we see online, and this is the level of hatred and vitriol, frankly, that some of my Jewish colleagues experience, that many of my constituents experience,” said Lawler.

Lawler represents New York’s 17th Congressional District, which is home to about 90,000 Jews, or about 12 percent of the district’s population.

“I’m not going to stop standing up for my constituents. I’m not going to stop standing up for the Judeo-Christian values that are at the core of our nation, our Constitution, our rule of law,” he said.

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Lawmakers’ prescription data at risk after data breach

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Lawmakers on Capitol Hill were informed this week of a data breach involving the congressional medical office that may have compromised personal information — including their prescription history.

The intrusions occurred March 1 and 3 and targeted RXNT, a medical software provider used by the Office of the Attending Physician to manage care for members of Congress, according to letters sent this week to affected individuals that were reviewed by Blue Light News.

Brian Monahan, the Capitol’s attending physician, is making personal calls to staff and lawmakers whose data are affected, according to one person contacted by phone this week and alerted that their prescription history was among those breached.

RXNT’s software is intended to “securely transmit prescription information to pharmacies for fulfillment,” Monahan’s office explained in the letters to patients. Among the data accessed in the RXNT breach includes names, birthdays, addresses, prescription information, doctor information and pharmacy information.

Under federal law, the data breach has to be reported within 60 days of the intrusion being discovered. RXNT notified the attending physician’s office on the last possible day allowed under federal health privacy rules. That, in turn, might have delayed the OAP’s review of the impact of the breach on Capitol Hill patients, according to two people familiar with the timeline and granted anonymity to share private deliberations.

It is not clear what foreign or domestic entity conducted the breach and where the sensitive data on lawmakers’ health could end up.

Financial data, insurance information and Social Security numbers were not compromised, nor were any patient records maintained by the Office of the Attending Physician that were not shared with RXNT. Such records, which include extensive information on lawmakers’ health history and medical treatments, “remain secured within the walls of Congress” and are “not cloud based,” according to the notice shared with affected patients on Capitol Hill.

“The OAP only provides the minimum information required to process prescription services,” the letter reads.

The Office of the Attending Physician operates several small medical clinics on the Capitol campus where Navy medical personnel handle both emergencies and primary health care for lawmakers, while also providing vaccinations and minor medical services for congressional aides. Staff are able to procure prescriptions through the OAP in limited circumstances, including for official travel and follow-up care.

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Speaker calls allegations against Chuck Edwards ‘serious’

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Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday the allegations against Rep. Chuck Edwards are “serious” and that he has spoken to the North Carolina Republican — who reportedly denied them all.

Johnson also noted an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation into sexual misconduct and harassment accusations against Edwards, who is alleged to have had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a staffer, among other things.

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