fallout continues tonight at the Pentagon after Secretary of Defense Pete Hexath used his personal phone to send information about US military operations in Yemen in another private signal chat This one included his wife brother and personal attorney According to the New York Times it comes about a month after it became public that Hegsath shared those Yemen air strike plans in a separate signal chat with top administration officials and a journalist Hegsathth has denied what he shared was classified and blamed former staffers for leaking But calls are mounting for his resignation including from Representative Mikey Cheryl a Navy veteran who says Hexath's actions put American service members lives in danger She joins me now Congresswoman good to see you Appreciate your time You and many of your Democratic colleagues now have called for Defense Secretary Hegsath's resignation Do you believe that this latest signal chat is in violation of federal law or Department of Defense regulations i know it is Um you know I've served I can tell you that sharing targeting information um information on a strike like this This is classified information national security information So that a signal chat a signal chat is not a platform in which you can share classified information much less um sharing it with people like your spouse for example Uh so this is certainly contrary to department of defense regulations It would get a young petty officer fired with cause court marshaled Um and so the fact that that the secretary of defense is doing this is really beyond the pale So let me ask you about that because the White House says this wasn't classified information This was sensitive information for the lay person What's the difference and um does it constitute a breach as well well first of all this White House in previous administrations has mishandled classified information The president himself has is quite known for doing that They're wrong That is not true This is classified information sensitive information is something you might not want shared uh broadly because um you know you might want to say like oh look uh this is an internal conversation with some of our allies we wouldn't want some of our adversaries to hear this So it's sensitive about different decisions that maybe not a decision point but different things that the United States is considering as it makes decisions but classified information Um that would be things like a a strike that is being planned um where it is going to be planned um and when it's going to happen and what types of jets are going to be used That is all classified information because we would not want our adversary prepared for that because then you put people in danger and and make no mistake by doing this people's lives are put in danger Those pilots lives are being put in danger because of possible preparedness um by the adversary of ground munitions and stuff that could take out these fighters So this is um this is just the latest in I think a series of a really a career of questionable decisions by Pete Hegsth It's why I never thought he was qualified to be the Secretary of Defense in the first place I think what's even more offensive is this sort of hypocrisy and suggesting that very senior capable people like the chairman of the joint chiefs or like the chief of naval operations should not be in their positions and calling into question simply because uh in the case of the chairman he was black or in the case of the CNO she was a woman calling into question their ability to serve and suggesting um that that they were unable to serve when in fact he was the least competent person that we've ever had as the secretary of defense He suggests because he can do all these push-ups he is somehow qualified We are seeing that no it actually takes a lot more to be qualified to be a leader in our military Um and he simply doesn't have what it takes Are you of the mind then as some some other Democrats have now called for for the inspector general to step in um launch an investigation or another oversight body for that matter i I mean certainly we can do an investigation into how classified information is being treated by the whole national security apparatus I'm not sure though the confidence I have in this administration to support that kind of investigation It's it's certainly warranted It's something that in normal times I would call for But at this point I think Pete Hexath needs to be fired immediately We need to at a minimum replace him with someone competent That's all I'm asking for is just basic competence Um so we can continue to protect the national security of this nation Let me switch gears very quickly You have a long to-do list uh while on recess the reconciliation um that is upon you all Where does the talk on uh extending the salt cap um and on the Democrats um budget framework stand right now and how much of that are you going to be looking at this week so as you may recall the president uh implemented the salt cap in his first administration is now talking about extending it Um as we have fought back against that he's made some non-starter suggestions like he'll double it So from 10,000 to 20,000 That is a non-starter So I'm continuing to fight along with the Salt Caucus pushing my Republican colleagues to to stand up against this reminding them of how bad this is for our region Um we're going back to do reconciliation and the speaker has come out and suggested that no Republican should stand against the $880 billion suggested for Medicaid cuts I again am calling upon my Republican colleagues to stand up to that because that would be so incredibly harmful to our state As you may recall many New Jerseyians know we send so much money to the federal government and um if they are going to refuse to fund things like Medicaid right now then they need to send that money back in a federal block grant or in some other way And the attorney general should take them to court if they refuse to run the systems that we've entrusted our money to them to run We'll have to leave it there Congresswoman Mikey Cheryl thanks so much for joining us Thanks for having me