Hegseth on Signal controversy: 'I know exactly what I'm doing'
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended himself Tuesday amid controversy surrounding a Signal group in which he and other top Trump administration members discussed an attack on Yemen — and mistakenly added a journalist to the chat.
“Nobody’s texting war plans. … I know exactly what I’m doing, exactly what we’re directing, and I’m really proud of what we accomplished,” Hegseth said Tuesday while in Hawaii.
Hegseth’s Tuesday comments mirror those from Monday, when he said no one “was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that.”
The Atlantic published a report Monday by its editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, in which he detailed his time in the Signal chat after being added to it. The report rattled Washington, and fears around national security rose in its wake.
On Wednesday, The Atlantic published the messages in the Signal group chat that Goldberg inadvertently gained access to. The messages show Hegseth sending details about the Yemen attack, including the strike's specific timeline and the weapons used, ahead of it being carried out.
Goldberg directly refuted Hegseth’s Monday comments in an interview that night with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
“That’s a lie. He was texting war plans,” Goldberg told Collins. “He was texting attack plans. When targets were going to be targeted; how they were going to be targeted; who was at the targets; when the next sequence of attacks was happening.”
Hegseth said Tuesday that “the strikes against the Houthis that night were devastatingly effective, and I'm incredibly proud of the courage and skill of the troops.”
“And they are ongoing and continue to be devastatingly effective,” he added.