Democrats hope to force difficult vote for Republicans

27/3/2025 5:53

Democratic lawmakers in

the U.S. House of Representatives sought on Wednesday to force

the Trump administration to hand over records related to the

disclosure of highly sensitive attack plans that were shared

over a commercial messaging app, according to a document

reviewed by Reuters.



The lawmakers filed a resolution that - if passed by the

House - would require the Trump administration to transmit a

wide range of documents, messaging chats, charts, notes from

meetings and telephone records related to discussion on the

Signal app that included top administration officials and a

journalist.



It is unclear if the "Resolution of Inquiry," seen by

Reuters, would pass a vote by either the House Foreign Affairs

Committee or the full House of Representatives, but it would

keep alive an issue that the White House has sought to downplay

since the story was published in The Atlantic on Monday.



Filing the resolution is one of the most aggressive

responses yet by Democrats to the apparent security breach.



A source familiar with the resolution said it is led by

Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House

Foreign Affairs Committee, and backed by every Democrat on the

panel.



Under House rules, the resolution of inquiry must be voted

on by the relevant House committee - in this case the Foreign

Affairs panel - within 14 days, or Democrats can force a vote in

the full House.



Democrats - and some of President Donald Trump's fellow

Republicans - have been demanding explanations after the news

this week that top officials, including Vice President JD Vance

and members of Trump's cabinet, this month discussed an imminent

attack on Houthis in Yemen in a chat on Signal that included the

editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.



National Security Adviser Mike Waltz has said he took full

responsibility for the breach as he had created the Signal

group. But on Wednesday, Waltz played down the disclosure,

saying on X: "No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS.

Foreign partners had already been notified that strikes were

imminent."



Trump has also played down the Yemen leak, saying on a

podcast "there was nothing in there that compromised ... the

attack."



Though Republicans have the votes to block the measures,

Democrats view these efforts as a way to put Republicans on

record and to create a potential battle cry for next year's

midterm elections.



Republicans hold a slim majority in the House, and have to

date hewed closely to all of Trump's policy positions.



However, some administration officials have acknowledged

that adding the journalist to a sensitive military chat was a

mistake, and it could be difficult for some Republicans to

object to a demand for information from the administration.