WATCH: Cotton opens Senate intelligence hearing after war plans shared in Trump Cabinet group chat

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., gave an opening statement Tuesday in a hearing on worldwide threats, a day after the revelation that senior Trump administration officials discussed sensitive U.S. military attack plans in a Signal app group chat and inadvertently included a journalist.

Cotton, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, did not address the news in his remarks. He spoke about the "core mission of the intelligence community" — to protect the United States.

He continued: "It's not the role of intelligence agencies to make policy to justify presidential action or to operate like other federal agencies. After years of drift, the intelligence community must recommit to its core mission of collecting clandestine intelligence from adversaries whose main objective is to destroy our nation and our way of life."

The text chain, in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth discussed plans to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen, also included Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who were scheduled to testify in the hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. They will be joined by FBI Director Kash Patel, NSA Director Timothy Haugh and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Jeffrey Kruse. In the time since the group chat was reported, national security experts and lawmakers have expressed concern about the major lapse in security.

When asked by reporters about the communications around the plans late Monday, Hegseth said “nobody was texting war plans."

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