A bombshell report that top national security officials for President Donald Trump discussed war plans in a private group chat that accidentally included the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic has elicited fierce criticism from Democrats and media commentators who have framed it as a scandal for which heads should roll—but it’s largely been dismissed by a number of Republicans.
In a story published on Monday, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz added him last month to a group chat on Signal, an encrypted messaging app, that also included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Vice President J.D. Vance, and other top national security and White House officials. In the chat, the officials deliberated over an attack on the Houthis in Yemen and Hegseth sent operational details of strikes two hours before bombs dropped.
Hegseth has suggested the story is fake, calling Goldberg a “deceitful and highly-discredited ‘so-called journalist.’” But National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes confirmed to Goldberg that the messages “appears to be authentic” and the administration is “reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
When asked about the report on Monday, Trump said “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of the Atlantic.” While Politico reported that some in the administration are furious with Waltz and deliberating whether he should resign or be forced out, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that Trump still has “the utmost confidence in his national security team.” The Atlantic report comes days after the Department of Defense announced an investigation into leaks of sensitive information.
The revelation of the leaked group chat set off a flurry of criticism from Democrats, including calls for consequences.
DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement that Hegseth should resign or be fired: “Hegseth—and everyone else involved—put on a stunning display of recklessness and disregard for our national security,” Martin said. “This is one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a floor speech. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called it the “highest level of f–kup imaginable” in a post on X. “Wait. Pete Hegseth hasn’t resigned yet?” posted California Rep. Eric Swalwell. Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth posted that Hegseth “should be fired immediately.” In a statement posted on Threads, Illinois Rep. Jonathan Jackson also called for Hegseth’s resignation, adding that the incident is evidence of the Trump Administration prioritizing “ideological attacks over competence and accountability.”
New York Times columnist David French, a former Army lawyer and self-described evangelical conservative who is a frequent critic of Trump, wrote: “There is not an officer alive whose career would survive a security breach like that.” French suggested that the breach, if committed by another officer, could even be investigated as potentially criminal and that “Nothing destroys a leader’s credibility with soldiers more thoroughly than hypocrisy or double standards. … If [Hegseth] had any honor at all, he would resign.”
But some Republicans in Congress, which is meant to act as a check on and exercise oversight of the executive branch, have largely downplayed the incident, offering mild criticism if any.
“A mistake was made. It happens,” Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy told reporters, adding that it’s “not keeping the American people up at night. … Trust me, this is not going to lead to the apocalypse.” North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said, “You got to know who you’re sending your text to,” but he also told reporters “it’s a 24-hour news cycle. … I’ve got a lot of confidence in Mike [Waltz]. This doesn’t undermine my belief that he’s a solid pick for the role.” Florida Sen. Rick Scott expressed similarly tepid concerns: “Clearly, they’ve got to, you know, make sure that they’re careful how they do this,” he told reporters when asked about the group chat. South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds added that he expected Democrats to raise the incident during an intelligence hearing on Tuesday, and that “some of my Republican colleagues may raise it just as an issue to be very concerned about.” Gabbard and Ratcliffe are among those who were already due to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.
West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said the incident warranted “some kind of internal investigation” to “make corrections,” but Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville said a congressional investigation wasn’t needed: “You can’t put just blame on just one person, other than the fact that the person in charge, that the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, he’ll get it corrected. And you know, that’s just part of transition and growing,” Tuberville told CNN.
Florida Rep. Brian Mast, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, seemed to echo Tuberville’s sentiment, telling reporters that the issue “wasn’t a systemic thing” and didn’t require a “special investigation.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters it was an issue of “systems and process, not personnel,” suggesting that disciplinary action against anyone involved in the chat would be the wrong move. “The administration is addressing what happened,” Johnson said. “Apparently an inadvertent phone number made it onto that thread. They’re gonna track that down and make sure that doesn’t happen again. … Clearly, I think the administration has acknowledged it was a mistake and they’ll tighten up and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Still, the breach seems to have shaken up many others in the party.
Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon spelled out the national security implications of the gaffe, telling reporters, “everybody makes mistakes, texting somebody, we’ve all done it. But you don’t put classified information on unclassified devices like Signal. And there’s no doubt, I’m an intelligence guy, Russia and China are monitoring both their phones, right. So putting out classified information like that endangers our forces, and I can’t believe that they were knowingly putting that kind of classified information on unclassified systems, it’s just wrong.” Texas Sen. John Cornyn said it “sounds like a huge screw up. I mean is there any other way to describe it? I don’t think you should use Signal for classified information.” And New York Rep. Mike Lawler posted on X: “Classified information should not be transmitted on unsecured channels—and certainly not to those without security clearances, including reporters. Period.”
“We’re just finding out about it. But obviously, we’ve got to run it to ground and figure out what went on there. We’ll have a plan,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters the committee “will be looking into this.” “It’s definitely a concern, and it appears that mistakes were made,” Wicker added, but he said that whether someone should be held accountable depended on the results of an investigation.
Meanwhile, Maine Sen. Susan Collins reportedly called the incident an “extremely troubling and serious matter”; Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski told a HuffPost reporter, “there needs to be some accountability”; and Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy put it most bluntly: “Well, somebody f–ked up.”
—Chad de Guzman contributed reporting.
