Is Signal chat leak more serious than Clinton email controversy? Here’s what polls show
Most Americans believe the Signal chat scandal that embroiled President Donald Trump’s administration is a major concern, polling shows. But, how does the public reaction compare with past scandals?
On March 24, The Atlantic published a story stating one of its editors had been inadvertently added to a Signal group chat with senior members of Trump’s administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In the chat, they discussed detailed plans for an upcoming U.S. airstrike on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Soon afterward, Trump minimized the incident, saying it was “the only glitch in two months” of his administration, according to The Associated Press. He and others claimed that classified intelligence was not shared in the chat.
But, a March 25 YouGov survey revealed that Americans, by and large, are not downplaying the incident.
A majority of respondents, 53%, said it is a “very serious” problem that senior administration officials discussed sensitive military plans using an unclassified application in a chat that included a journalist. An additional 21% said it is “somewhat serious.”
The survey included 5,976 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.
Here’s how the public reaction measures up to those from recent scandals involving classified material.
Comparison to recent scandals
Polling on past controversies involving Trump, former President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reveals a smaller share of Americans considered them to be very serious.
In a 2022 Quinnipiac University poll, 49% of respondents said they believed allegations that Trump had mishandled classified documents after leaving the White house were very serious. A 2022 YouGov/Economist poll found 42% of respondents believed this to be very serious.
And, in a 2023 Quinnipiac poll, 39% of respondents said the discovery that Biden had mishandled classified documents after leaving office as vice president was very serious.
Similar shares of Americans believed Clinton’s use of a personal email account to conduct government business was a grave concern.
A 2022 YouGov poll found 41% of respondents believed her use of a personal email was very serious. And, in a 2015 poll by the same organization, 30% of respondents said they considered the problem to be very serious.