Now vs. then: What Trump officials have said about classified information

The use of a Signal group chat for top national security officials to discuss military strike plans has drawn comparisons to Hillary Clinton’s use of a home server as secretary of state. 

Reporting from The Atlantic revealed that President Donald Trump’s most senior national security advisers posted the specifics of a military attack on Houthis in Yemen to a chat group on the commercial messaging app Signal hours before the attack took place. They inadvertently added a journalist to the conversation. 

The chat has ignited fury among Democrats and raised several questions, among them whether federal laws were violated, whether classified information was exposed on the commercial messaging app, and whether anyone will face consequences for the leaks.

RELATED: 'The Atlantic' publishes excerpts of Signal group chat that shared attack plans

It also resurfaced previous comments that top Trump administration officials made about Clinton’s private server, and how those compare to the administration’s current attempts to downplay a national security breach. 

What was the Signal group chat about? 

Big picture view:

The chat group included 18 members, including Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. The group, called "Houthi PC Small Group," likely for Houthi "principals committee" — was comprised of Trump’s senior-most advisers on national security, including Trump's national security adviser Mike Waltz, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The National Security Council said the text chain "appears to be authentic."

At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday, Gabbard would not say whether she was accessing the information on her personal phone or government-issued phone, citing an ongoing investigation by the National Security Council.

How Signal group chat compares to Clinton email server scandal

The backstory:

In 2016, during the presidential race between Clinton and Trump, the FBI learned that Clinton, as secretary of state, had used a private email server to conduct state business at home. 

One of the chief concerns about Clinton’s email server was that it was insecure, and that sensitive information could fall into the wrong hands. But former FBI Director James Comey said in recommending that no charges be brought against Clinton that there was no evidence that her email account had been hacked by hostile actors.

What they're saying:

Clinton's reaction to the Signal group chat was one of astonishment: "You have got to be kidding me," Clinton said in an X post that spotlighted The Atlantic article and included an eyes emoji.

What did Trump say about the Signal group chat? 

 "The main thing was nothing happened. The attack was totally successful," Trump said during a meeting with a group of his ambassadors at the White House on Tuesday.

He also called his national security adviser, Waltz, "a very good man" and insisted "he will continue to do a very good job," while adding, "I think it’s very unfair how they attacked Michael" and labeling Goldberg a "total sleazebag."

Later, in an interview with Newsmax, Trump said a Waltz aide had Goldberg’s number and "this guy ended up on the call." He also added that he felt good about what occurred. "I can only go by what I’ve been told ... but I feel very comfortable, actually."

What did Trump say about Clinton’s emails? 

 "Hillary is the one who sent and received classified information on an insecure server, putting the safety of the American people under threat," Trump said in an October 2016 speech in Warren, Michigan.

"The rigged system refused to prosecute her for conduct that put all of us, everybody in this room, everybody in this country at risk. Hillary Clinton went to great lengths to create a private email server and to bypass government security in order to keep her emails from being read by the public and by federal officials," he said in a November 2016 speech in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

And, during a Florida rally in July 2016, he even urged Russian hackers to help find a batch of emails said to have vanished from Clinton’s private server. "Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."

What did Pete Hegseth say about the Signal group chat? 

"Nobody was texting war plans," Hegseth told journalists traveling with him in Hawaii on Monday. He said of Goldberg, "You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes."

RELATED: Pentagon announces investigation into leaks, which could include polygraph tests

What did Pete Hegseth say about Clinton’s emails? 

"Any security professional, military, government or otherwise, would be fired on the spot for this type of conduct and criminally prosecuted for being so reckless with this kind of information," Hegseth, then a regular contributor for Fox News Channel, said of Clinton's emails on the network in 2016.

That same year, Hegseth asked on Fox News, "How damaging is it to your ability to recruit or build allies with others when they are worried that our leaders may be exposing them because of their gross negligence or their recklessness in handling information?"

In another 2016 Fox News segment, Hegseth said, "If it was anyone other than Hillary Clinton, they would be in jail right now for what has been done. Because the assumption is, in the intelligence community, if you are using unclassified means, there is the potential for, and likelihood, that foreign governments are targeting those accounts and gathering intelligence from them."

What did Marco Rubio say about the Signal group chat? 

Marco has offered no public comment on the Signal group chat.

What did Marco Rubio say about Clinton’s emails? 

"Nobody is above the law, not even Hillary Clinton – even though she thinks she is," Rubio told Fox News in January 2016.

The previous year in a Fox News interview, Rubio referred to the same emails when he said, "What they did is reckless — it’s complete recklessness and incompetence."

What did Stephen Miller say about the Signal group chat? 

Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, has offered no public comment on the Signal leak.

What did Stephen Miller say about Clinton’s emails?

"One point that doesn’t get made enough about Hillary’s unsecured server illegally used to conduct state business (obviously created to hide the Clintons’ corrupt pay-for-play): foreign adversaries could easily hack classified ops & intel in real time from other side of the globe," Miller said on social media in 2022. 

MilitaryDonald J. TrumpPolitics