Fallout continues from the SignalGate scandal, where sensitive information about a U.S. military strike in Yemen was inadvertently shared by top Pentagon and intelligence officials with a prominent journalist on an unvetted communications app.
The group chat on Signal included the Vice President and the Secretary of Defense, who denied there was any classified information shared — and who lashed out at the journalist, Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg.
Because Hegseth and other intel officials insisted that the information shared was not classified, Goldberg subsequently released details of the chat that he had previously withheld. The dialogue reportedly included messages below:
BREAKING from The Atlantic:
Editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg has released the Signal war plans text thread:
Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal. https://t.co/CbFDHzgEGf pic.twitter.com/B36PBLpdmj
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 26, 2025
The Trump administration has joined Hegseth in lashing out at Goldberg, with the President mocking the Atlantic as “going out of business” and Elon Musk joking about the magazine’s purported lack of reach, a joke disputed by the viral quality of the story.
Democrats grilled numerous intel community members during congressional hearings yesterday, hearings that were scheduled before the fiasco. No official took responsibility during the hearings, but National Security Advisor Mike Waltz did shoulder some blame in a Fox News interview in the evening, while also offering some narratives that seemed implausible even to Trump-friendly Fox host Laura Ingraham.
Ingraham: But you’ve never talked to him so how is his number on your phone? pic.twitter.com/uVlf5d3rJ8
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 25, 2025
It isn’t just Democrats condemning the Signal communications, which at best show a team of amateurs on the job and at worst reveal incompetence that rises to the level of criminal conduct.
Conservative Republican Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) weighed in on SignalGate with a warning that this is Hegseth and company’s last chance to get it right. “I don’t know if a head will roll or has to roll yet,” Cramer said, “but this has got to be the last time something this big and dumb happens.”
“I hope somebody owns up to the fact that it was a major mistake and apologizes and says it will never happen again,” Cramer said. “That’s what adults do, responsible adults do.”
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) March 26, 2025