Illinois Democrats join calls for Trump Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth to step down after leaked Signal messages
Illinois Democrats are joining a growing chorus of calls for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign after an editor was mistakenly included in Signal messages that revealed sensitive national security information and war plans.
The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg this week reported that he was included on a group chat with top intelligence officials, including Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, in messages that disclosed plans for a planned attack against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The Atlantic posted screenshots of the messages Wednesday after White House officials claimed no "war plans" were discussed and no classified information was revealed. President Trump called it "a witch hunt."
One of the messages read, “TEAM UPDATE: TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Sen. Dick Durbin, Gov. JB Pritzker and U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Mike Quigley, Jonathan Jackson, Jan Schakowsky, Sean Casten, Delia Ramirez and Nikki Budzinski are among Illinois Democrats calling for President Donald Trump's defense secretary to step down.
Appearing on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Wednesday, Duckworth said she used her “Army language,” when she called Hegseth a “f****** liar” in a statement that called for him to “resign in disgrace.”
"This is so clearly classified info he recklessly leaked that could’ve gotten our pilots killed,” Duckworth said in an earlier statement on Wednesday. “He needs to resign in disgrace immediately."
Duckworth is also calling for every official on the group chat to be subject to an independent investigation. The senator, who is an Iraq War veteran and a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee and U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sharply criticized Hegseth and the officials on the chat, saying they put the Army pilots in danger.
“These people know better and not a single one of them spoke up, which is why they’re all culpable,” Duckworth said on MSNBC.
At a House Intelligence Committee hearing Wednesday, Krishnamoorthi, a senior member of the committee, also urged Hegseth to step down and called for a full investigation into ongoing security breaches by senior officials.
“This is classified information. It’s a weapon system, as well as a sequence of strikes, as well as details of the operations,” Krishnamoorthi said. “He needs to resign immediately.”
Krishnamoorthi was expected to join Illinois Veterans for Change Thursday afternoon for a protest in Daley Plaza demanding Hegseth’s immediate resignation.
Pritzker on Monday said national security was compromised — and the lives of soldiers were put at risk by the messages.
“We’re not kidding around anymore. The confusion that they’re causing. The chaos that they’re causing, the Trump administration, that is, has now gone to the Defense Department, our intelligence agencies, and is being effectuated so that our military is being put at risk and our national security is being put at risk,” Pritzker said. “We can’t stand this any longer. I mean, Pete Hegseth, which everybody knows is unqualified to be the defense secretary, is responsible here. Donald Trump should fire Pete Hegseth."
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Durbin asked John Andrew Eisenberg, a former National Security Council legal adviser who is Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department’s national security division, whether he believed the Justice Department should investigate the breach and prosecute those responsible.
Eisenberg said the department should take “whatever appropriation action there is,” but added he didn’t know enough about what happened, and that “it depends on the facts, like if the facts are completely different than what has been reported.”
Durbin on X later wrote, “The answer is yes. The Justice Department should investigate the Signal group chat fiasco.” A Durbin spokesperson on Thursday confirmed Durbin's support for Hegseth’s resignation.