Retired Lt. Gen. Daniel “Razin” Caine, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday he would not discuss classified information on an unclassified channel and would have stopped last month’s Signal chat involving high-ranking officials had he been in the group.
Caine met with lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee, telling them he believes in protecting the “element of surprise,” The Hill reported.
“That’s a key and essential thing that we owe our warfighters,” Caine said.
Caine said if he saw classified information being shared on an unclassified chain of communication, he would put a stop to it, telling senators he has “always communicated proper information in the proper channels.”
National security adviser Mike Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have come under fire after Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, was added to a Signal group chat by Waltz that featured top officials in the Trump administration. The Atlantic’s story showed Hegseth provided times of warplane launches, strike packages, and targets of Houthi rebels in Yemen.
In his remarks, Caine sought to assure lawmakers of his approach to readying the nation for future wars and keeping the military out of them.
Caine said his wide-ranging military experience, which included seeing fellow service members die in service to the nation, has shaped his views on how and when to use force and “the importance of carefully considering the use of that force.”
Caine also for the first time publicly denied that he had ever worn a MAGA hat. Trump has told a story about Caine, saying he wore one of the hats when the two met some years ago.
When asked during the hearing, Caine said, “For 34 years, I’ve upheld my oath of office and my commitment to my commission. And I have never worn any political merchandise.”
He said Trump must have been “talking about somebody else.”
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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