CIA Director John Ratcliffe clashed with a Democratic senator Tuesday over the lawmaker’s description of the Trump administration’s leaked Signal chat – pushing back multiple times before snapping, ‘I didn’t say any of those things.’

The exchange between Ratcliffe and Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., happened Tuesday morning during the Senate Intelligence Committee’s annual ‘Threats to the Homeland’ hearing. 

Much of this year’s hearing, however, centered on the extraordinary news that more than a dozen of Trump’s top national security officials, including Ratcliffe, had inadvertently included Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Golberg in a Signal group chat that discussed plans for a forthcoming strike on the Houthis in Yemen. 

The news was first reported by Golberg Monday, in a first-person account that sent shockwaves throughout Washington, D.C. 

Ratcliffe, especially, was grilled by lawmakers over the Trump administration’s use of the encrypted messaging app to exchange purported classified security information. Senators demanded to know who added Goldberg, a well-known editor and journalist, to the so-called ‘Houthi PC Small Group,’ where he remained unnoticed for several days.

Bennet asked Ratcliffe if it was his view that there was nothing wrong with the Signal thread in question, and whether he shared the view of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that the chat in question did not include any targeting information or battle sequence.

Bennet said this was in Ratcliffe’s testimony, before noting, ‘I’m a little staggered that that is your view, Director Ratcliffe.’

‘Does the CIA have any rules about [the] handling of classified information?’ he asked. ‘Yes or no?’

‘Yes,’ Ratcliffe responded. He added that he had not previously heard of Goldberg, though he acknowledged ‘clearly he was added’ to the Signal thread by someone in the group.

‘I don’t know how he was added,’ Ratcliffe said, before Bennet interrupted, asking, ‘You don’t know that the president’s national security advisor invited him to join the signal thread,’ referring to national security advisor Mike Waltz. 

‘Everybody in America knows,’ Bennet said. 

Ratcliffe said he does not use the app to share classified information, or to share targeting information.

‘And your testimony as the director of the CIA, is that it’s totally appropriate’ to conduct conversations like this on Signal, Bennet asked. ‘Is it appropriate?’

Ratcliffe began to respond, saying ‘No, that is not what I—’ before the Democratic senator cut him off. 

He then tried again, challenging Bennet: ‘Did I say it was? When did I use the word ‘appropriate’?’’

‘Clearly, ‘nothing to see here,’ is what your testimony is,’ Bennet said. ‘It was just a normal day at the CIA where we chat about this kind of stuff over Signal. In fact, it’s so normal that the last administration left it here for us.’ That’s your testimony today.’

‘No, that is not my testimony,’ Ratcliffe fired back. ‘I didn’t say any of those things that you just related, senator.’

The back-and-forth wrapped with a blistering remand from Bennet, who told Ratcliffe of the Signal chat: ‘This sloppiness, this incompetence, this disrespect for our intelligence agencies and the personnel who work for them is entirely unacceptable. It’s an embarrassment,’ he said. ‘You need to do better. You need to do better.’ 

During the hearing, other Democrats, including Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, called for Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign over the Signal chat in question.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously attempted to brush off the Signal chat, telling reporters Monday that the attacks on the Houthis discussed in the group chat ‘have been highly successful and effective.’ 

‘President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including national security advisor Mike Waltz,’ she said.

A federal office dedicated to the research of long COVID is set to close following the Trump administration’s decision to slash the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) workforce.

Ian Simon, head of the Office of Long COVID Research and Practice (OLC), made the announcement in an email on Monday, Politico reported.

‘The Office of Long COVID Research and Practice will be closing as part of the administration’s reorganization coming this week,’ the email read, according to Politico. ‘We are proud of what we have accomplished together, advancing understanding, resources, and support for people living with Long COVID.’

Fox News Digital reached out to HHS and Simon for more information, but they did not immediately respond.

It is unclear when the OLC will close nor whether its staff will remain employed by the federal government.

The Biden-era office was established as a federal response to the widespread and long-term effects of COVID, which can result in chronic conditions that require comprehensive care.

The decision to shutter the office comes after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during his confirmation hearing in January that he was committed to continuing funding and prioritizing long COVID research.

However, President Donald Trump directed HHS in a presidential action last month to ‘terminate the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Long COVID.’

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said more than $1.5 billion was approved in the last several years for its Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative, which studies the impact of long COVID. 

The NIH reported in 2023 that 23 million people were affected by the illness, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in 2023 that 6% of American adults suffered from long COVID, down from 7.5% in 2022.

‘While our office is closing, we hope that the work we have been dedicated to will continue in some form,’ the email read.

The State Department said Monday that data tracking tens of thousands of Ukrainian children allegedly abducted by Russian forces remains ‘secure,’ despite concerns it had been deleted or poorly protected following funding cuts to the program by the Trump administration.

The data initiative, spearheaded by the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab, was part of a larger program known as the Yale Conflict Observatory, which served to track various war crimes, including those committed by Russia during its war with Ukraine. Yale confirmed last week that the funding for the work it had been doing on the war in Ukraine was ‘discontinued.’ 

Pages on the Conflict Observatory were removed from the State Department’s website as well.

News about the Trump administration cutting funding to the program raised fears that the data had been lost, or was not being adequately protected from tampering, after the State Department indicated it was being held on a database controlled by the primary contractor for Yale’s Conflict Observatory – the MITRE Corporation.

‘The data exists … we know it is secure,’ State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters during a Monday briefing. ‘Just because something has changed – as this has – [doesn’t mean] that it disappears, or stops, or becomes something that we can’t use.’ 

Bruce refused to comment any further about the federal government’s continued role, or lack thereof, with regard to protecting the data.

‘I would just remind you that there is a variety of dynamics that are occurring when it comes to the world knowing about those missing children,’ she said to reporters. 

The data in question was reportedly compiled by Yale researchers to be shared with Europol and the International Criminal Court to potentially bring war crimes charges against Russia following the end of the war, according to The New York Times.

About 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted by Russia and hidden in its adoption system, Democratic lawmakers warned in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They raised concerns that funding cuts to the Yale program could lead to permanent data loss.

The letter also noted that since the war began, more than 700,000 people from Ukraine have been relocated to Russia.

During Monday’s briefing, Bruce emphasized the president’s concern over the missing children and said their return from Russia to Ukraine has been part of ongoing U.S.-Russia discussions aimed at ending the war.

The State Department declined to provide any comment on this story, and referred all questions about the data to MITRE. In response to Fox News Digital’s questions about the data’s location, a MITRE spokesperson said that the research into Ukrainian children ‘is currently maintained by a former partner on [the Conflict Observatory] contract.’ However, the spokesperson would not indicate which specific partner it was referring to, as there are several. 

The spokesperson added that, as a result of the Trump administration’s move to cut funding to the Yale program, the research being done there to track abducted Ukrainian children has been halted.  

‘While we are not in a position to comment on the State Department’s decision, we do recognize the importance of HRL’s work and its contributions to international efforts to protect vulnerable populations, including Ukrainian children,’ a Yale University spokesperson told Fox News Digital. ‘Yale remains supportive of its researchers pursuing work that sheds light on urgent global issues.’

Delegations from Russian and Ukraine on Tuesday agreed to a ceasefire in the Black Sea following talks with Trump administration officials this week in Saudi Arabia.

‘The United States and Russia have agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea,’ the White House said in a statement following talks in Jeddah.

Similarly, just moments later, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who is leading the delegation confirmed that ‘All parties have agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.’

Though he also emphasized that ‘all movement by Russia of its military vessels outside of [the] eastern part of the Black Sea will constitute violation of the spirit of this agreement, will be regarded as violation of the commitment to ensure safe navigation of the Black Sea and threat to the national security of Ukraine.’

‘In this case, Ukraine will have full right to exercise [the] right to self-defense,’ he added in a readout following talks in Riyadh.

Though the Kremlin also reportedly suggested on Tuesday it may not be willing to fully enforce the ceasefire until it is admitted back into the SWIFT international banking system – calling into question the actual success of the talks. 

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates. 

President Donald Trump’s National Institute of Health on Friday quietly cut over $1 million in federally funded research evaluating if rats going through hormone therapy were more likely to overdose on a popular party drug. 

The DEI-funded NIH grant was first exposed in December 2024 by the White Coat Waste Project, a nonprofit organization that researches and reveals the misuse of taxpayer dollars for animal testing. The nonprofit last year revealed over $10 million in taxpayer money was spent on research creating ‘transgender animals.’

As Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) expose and cut mismanaged federal funds, the Trump administration has now cut ten ‘transgender animal’ research grants unveiled by the White Coat Waste Project. 

‘This is a great victory for taxpayers and animals,’ Anthony Bellotti, president and founder of White Coat Waste Project, said. ‘We’re proud that our blockbuster investigation has prompted the Trump administration to slash millions in DEI funds and other wasteful spending earmarked for creating transgender lab animals through sterilization, hormone therapies, and invasive surgeries and then subjecting them to drug overdoses, open wounds, electroshocks, and other painful and deadly experiments.’

‘Despite the mainstream media’s shameful misinformation campaign, transgender animal experiments are real – and really wasteful,’ Bellotti added. ‘The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!’

The University of Pacific Stockton was granted over $1 million for the project, ‘GHB Toxicokinetics: Role of sex hormone dependent monocarboxylate transporter regulation and potential for altered overdose risk in transgender men and women,’ running from April 1, 2020, through March 31, 2025. DOGE cut the program early on March 21.

The grant was funded by the NIH’s Support of Competitive Research (SCORE) Program, which aims to increase research at institutions that have ‘an explicitly stated mission or historical track records in graduating students from groups nationally underrepresented in biomedical research.’

The White Coat Waste Project obtained the project’s grant application through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which revealed plans to castrate male rats and inject them with estrogen, remove female rats’ ovaries and inject them with testosterone, and then inject the rats with Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate (GHB). GHB is used as a recreational party drug and is associated with ‘chemsex’ for its euphoric and sedative effects.

The project set out to ‘characterize GHB toxicokinetics and toxicity in the absence of sex hormones and in response to sex and cross-sex hormone therapy in males and females’ to determine if hormone replacement increased overdose risk in transgender men and women.

The White Coat Waste Project has worked with legislators to inform the public and received recognition from the president in the process. The nonprofit testified before the House Oversight Committee last month during the hearing, ‘Transgender Lab Rats and Poisoned Puppies: Oversight of Taxpayer-Funded Animal Cruelty.’

While delivering opening remarks on the misuse of taxpayer money funding ‘gender-affirming care’ for animals, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., mentioned the latest ‘transgender animal’ research funding cut by the Trump administration. 

‘We spent over $1 million to find out if female rats receiving testosterone therapy were more likely to overdose on a date rape drug,’ Mace said last month. 

‘At our House Oversight Committee hearing last month, we exposed cruel, taxpayer-funded transgender animal experiments,’ Mace told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

‘We uncovered how NIH wasted over a million dollars studying whether female rats – after having their ovaries removed and being injected with testosterone to mimic transgender men – were more likely to overdose on a date rape drug. President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency are now shutting down these appalling and inhumane experiments the Biden administration chose to fund with your hard-earned tax dollars,’ Mace added. 

Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, celebrated the $1 million in federal funding cut for transgender research on animals, thanking Trump and DOGE for eliminating this ‘wacky pseudoscience.’

‘Since last year, I’ve exposed how the Biden administration got caught in the woke mousetrap and wasted millions of tax dollars on transgender animal experiments,’ Ernst said. ‘I’m grateful that President Trump and DOGE are eliminating this wacky pseudoscience. Together, we are ending the silly science and ensuring that all studies funded by tax dollars are squeaky clean.’

President Donald Trump revealed that a staffer with national security advisor Mike Waltz’s office included the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic in a Signal group chat with senior Trump officials who were discussing plans for an upcoming strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen.

‘It was one of Michael’s people on the phone.A staffer had his number on there,’ Trump told NBC in a phone interview when asked how Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, was added to the high-profile chat.

The president added that Goldberg’s inclusion in the group chat had ‘no impact at all’ on the strike in Yemen. 

Goldberg published an article on Monday detailing how he was added to a Signal group chat on March 11, reportedly dubbed ‘Houthi PC Small Group,’ which included high-profile government officials, including Waltz, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and others. 

Signal is an encrypted messaging app that operates similarly to texting or making phone calls, but with additional security measures that help ensure communications are kept private to those included in the correspondence. 

Those in the group reportedly discussed targeting the Iran-backed terrorist group, the Houthis, in Yemen, including timing. 

‘According to the lengthy Hegseth text, the first detonations in Yemen would be felt two hours hence, at 1:45 p.m. eastern time,’ Goldberg wrote in his first-hand account of the chat. ‘So I waited in my car in a supermarket parking lot. If this Signal chat was real, I reasoned, Houthi targets would soon be bombed. At about 1:55, I checked X and searched Yemen. Explosions were then being heard across Sanaa, the capital city.’

The inclusion of a journalist in the group chat has sparked outrage from Democrats, with some calling on Hegseth and Waltz to resign from their security roles, and others demanding they testify before Congress on the matter. 

Trump defended Waltz during his interview with NBC on Tuesday. 

‘Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,’ Trump said in the phone interview. 

Trump separately defended Waltz in comment to Fox News on Tuesday, saying the national security advisor will not be fired over the incident. 

‘He’s not getting fired,’ Trump told Fox News. The president said the incident was a ‘mistake,’ though there was ‘nothing important’ in the Signal text thread. 

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung summed up the Atlantic story in an X post as ‘nothing more than a section of the NatSec establishment community running the same, tired gameplay from years past.’

‘From the ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ hoax of the first term to the fake documents case of the last four years… at every turn anti-Trump forces have tried to weaponize innocuous actions and turn them into faux outrage that Fake News outlets can use to peddle misinformation,’ he continued. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt added in a social media post on Tuesday that ‘No ‘war plans’ were discussed’ in the group chat, and that ‘no classified material was sent to the thread.’

‘Jeffrey Goldberg is well-known for his sensationalist spin. Here are the facts about his latest story,’ she posted to X. ‘The White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible.’

‘As the National Security Council stated, the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread. Thanks to the strong and decisive leadership of President Trump, and everyone in the group, the Houthi strikes were successful and effective. Terrorists were killed and that’s what matters most to President Trump,’ she added. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for additional comment on the matter, but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Fox News’ David Rutz, Danielle Wallace and Peter Doocy contributed to this report.