Hegseth fends off reporter’s questions about Signal chat leak: 'I know exactly what I'm doing'
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday fended off a reporter’s questions about a leaked Signal chat group involving Trump administration officials discussing forthcoming strikes on the Houthis in Yemen.
Hegseth was asked during a press gaggle in Hawaii if the information was declassified before he put it in the Signal chat and if he was using the messaging platform to discuss operations as sensitive as the strikes against the Houthis on a government or a personal device.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, said he received a request to join the group chat on the encrypted messaging service Signal on March 11 from what appeared to be the president's National Security Advisor Michael Waltz. Goldberg released screenshots of some of the message exchanges he observed.
Goldberg reported that officials were discussing "war plans" in the group chat called "Houthi PC Small Group," but he decided not to publish some of the highly sensitive information he saw, including precise information about weapons packages, targets and timing, due to potential threats to national security and military operations.
Speaking in Hawaii Tuesday, Hegseth said the strikes against the Houthis that night were "devastatingly effective."
"I’m incredibly proud of the courage and skill of the troops. And they are ongoing and continue to be devastatingly effective," he said. "The last place I would want to be right now is a Houthi in Yemen who wants to disrupt freedom of navigation, so the skill and courage of our troops is on full display."
"It’s a complete opposite approach from the fecklessness of the Biden administration," he continued.
The secretary also repeated his claims that "nobody was texting war plans," pushing back on Goldberg's assertion.
"As I also stated yesterday, nobody’s texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that," Hegseth said.
Pressed by a reporter about whether he regrets leaking information in the Signal chat that could have put the lives of U.S. troops at risk, Hegseth claimed he has everything under control.
"Nobody’s texting war plans," he reiterated. "I know exactly what I’m doing, exactly what we’re directing, and I’m really proud of what we accomplished, the successful missions that night and going forward."
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 Staff Susie Wiles.
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Ratcliffe also put the name of a CIA undercover agent into the Signal chat, Goldberg reported.
The editor has described Hegseth’s denial as a "lie," citing messages he read that laid out a specific time for the attack, human targets, weapon systems and weather reports. He has also said he is considering whether to publish more messages to back up his reporting, as Hegseth and other Trump administration officials seek to discredit him.
Hegseth had earlier criticized Goldberg as "a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again, to include the … hoaxes of Russia, Russia, Russia, or the fine people on both sides hoax or suckers and losers hoax. So this guy is garbage."
But the White House has confirmed that the group chat "appears to be an authentic message chain."
"This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain," White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement. "The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security."
The Signal chat has been panned as a massive breach of national security, and many have noted that senior officials are not supposed to discuss detailed military plans outside special secure facilities or protected government communications networks.
Watchdog group American Oversight has sued Hegseth and other officials who were in the group chat, arguing that they failed to meet their obligations under the Federal Records Act by using Signal to communicate and plan active military operations.
Also on Tuesday, amid scrutiny over the Signal chat, Hegseth participated in some physical training with Navy SEALs.
"Kicked off the day alongside the warriors of SDVT-1 at @JointBasePHH," he wrote on X. "These SEALs are the tip of the spear, masters of stealth, endurance, and lethality. America’s enemies fear them—our allies trust them. Proud to spend time with America’s best."