Senate Armed Services chair confirms plans to investigate war plan group chat
Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) confirmed Tuesday that the committee plans to investigate The Atlantic’s reports of a Signal group chat where a journalist was apparently inadvertently added to a discussion regarding war plans with top Trump administration officials.
“We're going to look into this and see what the facts are, but it's definitely a concern. And you can be sure the committee, House and Senate, will be looking into this,” Wicker told CNN during a Tuesday morning interview.
“And it appears that mistakes were made, no question,” he added.
The editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, released a detailed article chronicling the communication between Vice President Vance, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, national security adviser Mike Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and several others regarding U.S. strikes on the Houthis in Yemen on the encrypted Signal app.
Goldberg said he believes he was mistakenly added to the chat but stayed on the text chain for days. He learned of the timing of the planned strikes and additional details ahead of the strike.
Wicker’s response to the report vastly differed from statements released by White House officials, including President Trump who denied it was a security breach but rather a “glitch.”
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump told NBC’s Garrett Haake in a phone interview.
He added that it was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”
The White House on Monday also said the president has confidence in Waltz when questioned on the matter.
“As President Trump said, the attacks on the Houthis have been highly successful and effective. President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz,” Leavitt told The Hill in an emailed statement.
Earlier in the day, Hegseth slammed The Atlantic and denied claims that Goldberg was made aware of war plans.
“Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said while preparing to travel to Guam for official business.
He also referred to Goldberg as “a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”
Gabbard and CIA director John Ratcliffe, who was also in the group chat, both faced an intense probe by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, which was scheduled before the bombshell report's release, as lawmakers grilled the officials.