Maine’s U.S. Senators are troubled over a Trump nominee’s characterization of a government meeting.

Independent Angus King and Republican Susan Collins repeatedly pressed the nominee to head the National Counterterrorism Center about discussion of highly sensitive information on a commercial phone app.

Nominee Joe Kent continually defended use of the Signal chat app and repeatedly called the information discussed in the gathering “not classified.”

Kent’s responses during a meeting of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Wednesday largely reflected the Trump administration’s assertion about a gathering of high-level administration members on Signal.

King and Collins both sit on the committee.

The gathering in question was led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and centered on discussion of military attacks in Yemen before they took place on Signal.

Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was included in the chat by mistake and wrote about the error the next day, which stirred up national attention and controversy.

Collins told Kent she has the Signal app on her phone, but does not use it to discuss highly sensitive information. She also suggested a need for more guidelines to prevent a repeat of the episode.

King grilled Kent over Kent’s repeated insistence the information discussed during the online gathering was “not classified.”

“Well, you say it’s not classified, if it walks like a duck and looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s classified,” said Senator King.

Kent was included in the gathering on Signal as chief of staff for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

Kent is a former Green Beret and CIA officer. He ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for Washington’s 3rd Congressional District in 2024, losing in the general election to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.