The White House said on Monday a group of signals that discussed an American attack against Houthis in Yemen that inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, an Atlantic chief editor, “seems to be authentic.”
The Trump administration members coordinated highly sensitive war plans in the group chat not sure, Goldberg wrote in A report for publication Mondays.
The spokesman for the White House National Security Council, Brian Hughes, shared with ABC News the statement he provided to the Atlantic confirming the veracity of a chat of a signal group, which Goldberg said he seemed to include the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, vice president JD Vance, the National Security Advisor of the White House, Mike Waltz, and the Secretary of State Framework, among others.
“At this time, the thread of the message that was reported seems to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain. The thread is a demonstration of the deep and reflective political coordination between the high officials. The current success of Operation Hutí demonstrates that there were no threats to our service services or our national security,” Hughes said in the statement.
Defense Secretary Peter Heghseth listens while President Donald Trump offers comments at the Oval Office of the White House, on March 21, 2025 in Washington.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
When asked about the incident, President Donald Trump said “he knows nothing about it,” and then added that he was listening to the journalist who asked the question for the first time.
The Pentagon sent questions about Hegseth’s participation in the discussion of the signal and the exchange of attack plans to the National Security Council and the White House.
The spokesman for the State Department, Tammy Bruce, was asked about the Atlantic report, including why the cabinet members were having a classified conversation about the signal and if Rubio was concerned about the implications of the incident.
“Well, I have two very short things to tell you: first we will not comment on the secretary’s deliberative conversations and, secondly, that you must contact the White House,” Bruce replied.
Democratic Senator Jack Reed, a classification member in the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement: “The carelessness shown by President Trump’s cabinet is impressive and dangerous.”
“If it is true, this story represents one of the most atrocious failures of operational security and common sense that I have seen,” Reed said. “Military operations should be handled with maximum discretion, using safe and approved lines of communication, because US lives are at stake.”
Other Democrats of Congress expressed disbelief and asked for investigations.
The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, urged the leader of the Senate John Thune and the Senate Republicans to work with Democrats in a “complete research” in the incident.
“Mr. President, this is one of the most impressive violations of military intelligence on which I have read in a lot, a long time,” Schumer said on the Senate’s floor. “This type of carelessness is how people are killed. This is how our enemies can take advantage of us. It’s how our national security falls into danger.”
Illinois Tammy Duckworth Senator, Lieutenant Retired Colonel of the Army National Guard, published in X: Pete Hegesh, the most unconditional defense secretary in history, is demonstrating his incompetence by literally filtering war plans classified in the group chat … Hegseth and Trump are making our country less safe. “
Delaware senator Chris Coans said that chat participants had “committed a crime, even if accidentally” and added: “We cannot trust anyone in this dangerous administration to keep the Americans safe.”
Arizona’s senator, Ruben Gallego, called the “fans” time episode.
“These are genuine [sic] They are also selling Ukraine and destroying our alliances worldwide, “he added.” It is not surprising that Putin is embarrasing them at the negotiating table. “
The president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, minimized the incident, saying: “The administration is addressing what happened, apparently, an inadvertent telephone number reached that thread. They will track that and make sure that it does not happen again.”
Pushed if making a discussion about a third -party application was irresponsible, Johnson replied: “Look, I will not characterize what happened. I think the administration has recognized that it was a mistake and they will ensure that it does not happen again. I don’t know what else can be said.”
Johnson added that he does not believe that Waltz or Hegseth should be disciplined.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who faced republican criticism for her use of a private email server while she was in the State Department, wrote in X: “You have to be joking.”
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Shannon K. Kingston, John Parkinson, Jay O’Brien and Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
