What to know today
- Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee grilled CIA Director John Ratcliffe and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard over a group chat about military plans to which a veteran journalist was inadvertently added.
- In an exclusive interview with NBC News, President Donald Trump said he is standing by national security adviser Mike Waltz, whose team Trump said was responsible for adding The Atlantic magazine's editor-in-chief to the chat. He later told reporters in the Oval Office that aides "probably" won't use the Signal messaging app anymore.
- Waltz said tonight that he takes "full responsibility" for putting together the text group that included journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.
- Trump's nominee to head the Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano, testified at his Senate confirmation hearing, where he faced questions about cuts to the agency and talk of privatization.
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Senate confirms Martin Makary to lead Food and Drug Administration
The Senate tonight confirmed Dr. Martin Makary, a pancreatic surgeon who has made controversial claims about Covid-19, as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
Makary, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins and a former Fox News personality, was confirmed in a 56-44 vote.
As FDA commissioner, Makary will be tasked with regulation and oversight related to drugs, vaccines, food and other products.
During the Covid pandemic, Makary voiced support for natural immunity. He incorrectly predicted in February 2021 that the United States would hit herd immunity by that April.
How encrypted app Signal can leave the door open for spies and hackers
Signal, the most secure widely available messaging app, has become a go-to resource for journalists, leakers and other people concerned about privacy. But it’s not infallible. And its shortcomings and limitations are precisely why its use by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top Trump administration defense officials has rocked the worlds of politics and national security.
The app made headlines yesterday after Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published the bombshell news that the Trump administration had accidentally added him to a Signal group chat this month to discuss military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
At first glance, it might not seem a major problem. Cybersecurity experts widely consider Signal to be the leading easy-to-use encrypted messaging service, and there are no public reports of its ever having been compromised by hackers.
Signal’s encryption protocol — the complicated algorithm that scrambles messages as they’re sent, then descrambles them for recipients — is the basis for some of the most popular messaging apps, including WhatsApp and iMessage. In 2023, Signal began updating its encryption to address the hypothetical threat of a quantum computer that could break less complicated encryption codes.
But Signal can’t protect people, even Cabinet members, if they accidentally tell it to message the wrong person.
Environmental Protection Agency workers in Chicago stepped out during their lunch periods to protest recent cuts at the agency.
Speaker Mike Johnson floats eliminating federal courts as GOP ramps up attacks on judges
Facing pressure from his right flank to take on judges who have ruled against Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., today floated the possibility of Congress eliminating some federal courts.
It’s the latest attack from Republicans on the federal judiciary, as courts have blocked a series of actions taken by the Trump administration. In addition to funding threats, Trump and his conservative allies have called for the impeachment of certain federal judges who have ruled against him, most notably U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who tried to halt Trump's using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants.
Mike Waltz says he wants contents of text chain to 'stay confidential'
National security adviser Mike Waltz said in tonight's Fox News interview that he does not support releasing a chain of messages about military planning that inadvertently included The Atlantic's top editor.
"I certainly want our deliberations to stay confidential," Waltz told host Laura Ingraham. "Of course, I don't want it all out there, because these were conversations back and forth that you should be able to have confidentially."
Waltz was responding to a question about whether Waltz would object to the public release of the messages if the contents were not classified, as Trump and his allies have claimed.
The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, wrote in his article yesterday that plans in the group text “included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing,” but that he had not included those details because of national security concerns.
Earlier today, Trump diminished the seriousness of the leak, saying the chat included “no classified information, as I understand it.”
Musk’s super PAC jumps into Florida’s special elections
A super PAC tied to billionaire Elon Musk has started spending in two deeply Republican House seats in Florida ahead of next week’s special elections, according to a new campaign finance report.
America PAC, which has not filed a financial disclosure yet this year but was almost entirely funded by Musk in 2024, is spending $20,000 on “texting services” to boost Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis in the 1st Congressional District and state Sen. Randy Fine in the 6th District, according to a report filed tonight with the Federal Election Commission, which was first reported by The New York Times.
America PAC’s spending in the special elections is minimal so far compared with the millions of dollars that have already been spent there. But it is a sign that Musk may be paying attention to the contests, as he continues to ramp up his political engagement while serving as a key White House adviser. America PAC has also spent millions of dollars on next week’s state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin.
Tuesday’s special elections in Florida are taking place in deeply Republican territory. Trump carried the 1st District by 37 points in November and the 6th District by 30 points, according to election result calculations from the NBC News Decision Desk.
Attorneys ask judge to add plaintiff in CFPB case to fulfill his late wife's dying wish
Pastor Eva Steege was one of the named plaintiffs in a lawsuit the National Treasury Employees Union filed last month against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and acting CFPB Director Russell Vought. At the time, Steege was in hospice care with a terminal illness, according to court filings.
But she had been working with the student loan ombudsman of the CFPB to fulfill a dying wish: to secure a discharge of her student loans before she died through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program to avoid putting a financial burden on her surviving family.
“That important and time-sensitive work was immediately halted by Acting Director Vought’s work-stoppage order of February 10, and his decision to summarily terminate the Student Loan Ombudsman, along with all other term employees of the Bureau, three days later,” attorneys for Steege wrote.
Steege died March 15. She was 83.
“The thing that she feared has thus come to pass: She died without securing the discharge of her student loan debt,” the filing says. “The plan to shutter the CFPB has thus permanently deprived Eva of the 'timely assistance' that the CFPB was required to provide.”
Attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to include Steege's husband, Ted Steege, as a plaintiff in the lawsuit as the person responsible for administering his wife’s estate.
The ombudsman who was working with Eva Steege, Julia Barnard, said she would love to help if she were still employed by the agency.
“If I were still able to perform the duties of the Student Loan Ombudsman, I would be able to meet with Ted to help him talk through his remaining options and fill out any remaining paperwork,” she wrote in a court filing. “I would also be able to meet with other partners, such as staff at the Office of Federal Student Aid and federal student loan servicers, to check on the status of Pastor Eva Steege’s outstanding Public Service Loan Forgiveness application, explore the family’s options, and escalate the case if necessary.”
Trump signs executive order requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections
Trump today signed a sweeping executive order attempting a major overhaul of American elections, requiring people to prove their citizenship when they register to vote.
The order — which also includes an array of other changes, from mail-in ballot deadlines to election equipment — could risk disenfranchising tens of millions of Americans. Election law experts questioned whether Trump had the authority to make the changes, saying the order is all but certain to be met with legal challenges.
Federal law currently requires that voters swear under penalty of perjury that they are citizens and eligible to vote when they register, and courts have prevented states from adding documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements for voters in federal races because of such laws.
Trump’s order directs the Election Assistance Commission, an independent, bipartisan commission that supports election officials, to redo its voter registration form and require voters to show U.S. passports or other government ID that shows citizenship to register to vote.
Mike Waltz says he takes 'full responsibility' for putting together text group that included a journalist
National security adviser Mike Waltz said in a Fox News interview tonight that he takes "full responsibility" for organizing a text group on the messaging app Signal that accidentally leaked plans for U.S. airstrikes on Houthi militants in Yemen to the editor of The Atlantic.
"I take full responsibility. I built the — I built the group," Waltz told host Laura Ingraham. "My job is to make sure everything's coordinated."
Waltz's comments were in response to a question about whether a staffer was responsible for adding The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to the group.
Waltz also suggested, without evidence, that Goldberg might have "deliberately" appeared in the group, which included top administration officials.
"Now, whether he did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical means is something we're trying to figure out," Waltz said, adding that he had spoken with Elon Musk today and that "we've got the best technical minds looking at how this happened."
The Atlantic has pushed back against efforts by Trump and his allies to attack its reporting.
"Attempts to disparage and discredit The Atlantic, our editor, and our reporting follow an obvious playbook by elected officials and others in power who are hostile to journalists and the First Amendment rights of all Americans. Our journalists are continuing to fearlessly and independently report the truth in the public interest," Anna Bross, a spokesperson for the publication, said in a statement today.
GOP lawmaker and Speaker Mike Johnson clash over proxy voting for new parents
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is clashing with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., over her push to pass legislation that would allow lawmakers who are new parents to vote remotely.
In a closed-door meeting today, Johnson discouraged rank-and-file Republicans from supporting Luna’s proxy voting bill, warning that it was unconstitutional, a source in the meeting said.
“We want to make it as easy as possible for young parents to be able to participate in the process,” Johnson told reporters after the meeting. “But proxy voting, in my view, is unconstitutional.”
Luna then took to X and posted a photo of three documents showing when Johnson had himself voted by proxy in 2022.