Defense Secretary Pete Hegses on Tuesday dodged a reporter’s question about a leaked signalling chat group that included Trump administration officials discussing upcoming strikes over Yemen’s Hoosis.
Hegseth was asked during a press gag in Hawaii whether the information was declassified before being put into signal chat, and whether he was using his messaging platform to discuss operations that are as sensitive as the government and personal devices strike against Houthis.
Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said on March 11 that he received a request to join group chats via encrypted messaging services signals from what appears to be the president’s national security adviser Michael Waltz. Goldberg has released some screenshots of the message exchanges he observed.
Goldberg reported that authorities were discussing “war plans” in a group chat called “Houthi PC Small Group,” but he decided not to release some of the very sensitive information he saw, including accurate information on weapon packaging, targets and timing, due to the potential threat to national security and military operations.
Trump officials accidentally text Atlantic journalists about military strikes in obvious security breaches
Defense Secretary Pete Hegses said he “knowed exactly what he was doing after the journalist was accidentally added to a group chat with senior staff. (Reuters/Yves Herman)
Speaking in Hawaii on Tuesday, Heggs said the strike against the night was “devastatingly effective.”
“I am extremely proud of the courage and skill of the military, and they are continuing and devastatingly effective,” he said. “The last place I want to be now is the Houthi in Yemen who wants to be disrupted with freedom of navigation, so the skills and courage of our military are fully on display.”
“This is the exact opposite of the Biden administration’s recklessness,” he continued.
The secretary also pushed back Goldberg’s claims, repeating the argument that “no one has texted the war plan.”
“As I said yesterday, no one is a text message war plan, and that’s all I have to say about it,” Heggs said.
Reporters regret whether they regret leaking information in signal chats that could put the lives of the US military in danger, Hegses claimed he has control over everything.
“Nobody texting war plans,” he repeated. “I know exactly what I’m doing, what we’re supervising, and I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved, the successful missions that night and the future.”
Goldberg reported that 18 people were listed in the signal group, including Hegseth, Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and White House Chief of Susie Wiles.
Trump doesn’t plan to fire Waltz after leaking the national security text chain
Jeffrey Goldberg reported that administrative authorities were discussing “war plans” in a chat with a signal group called “Houthi PC Small Group.” (Jemal Countess/Getty Images in the Atlantic)
Ratcliffe also put the names of the CIA undercover agents in the signal chat, Goldberg reported.
The editors describe Hegseth’s denial as a “lie” by quoting messages cited by attacks, human targets, weapon systems and weather reports that specify a specific time. He also said that he is considering whether to publish more messages to back up his report, as Hegus and other Trump administration officials are trying to trust him.
Hegses previously criticized Goldberg as “including hoaxes or suckers and losers of both occupations, either as a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who has created a profession that has repeatedly pitched hoaxes.
However, the White House has confirmed that group chats “seems like a real message chain.”
“This looks like a real message chain. We are reviewing how careless numbers have been added to the chain,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement. “This thread is a demonstration of deep and thoughtful policy coordination among senior officials. The continued success of Operation Houthi shows that there was no threat to the military or national security.”
According to this article, 18 people were listed in the signal group. These include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Director of National Intelligence Tarsi Gabbard. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarck)
Signal chats have been panned as a major violation of national security, and many have not pointed out that many are not to discuss detailed military plans outside special secure facilities or protected government communications networks.
The American superintendent of Watchdog Group sued Hegses and other officials who were involved in the group chat, claiming that they failed to fulfill their obligations under the federal record law by using signals to communicate and plan aggressive military operations.
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Also on Tuesday, during a scrutiny over signal chat, Hegseth took part in physical training with Navy Seals.
“I kicked off the day with the SDVT-1 warriors at @jointbasephh,” he wrote to X.
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