Top US Officials Defend Signal Chats Seen By Journalist

President Donald Trump and top allies struggled to fend off criticism over the inadvertent inclusion of a journalist in a Signal chat discussing military attacks in Yemen, after newly disclosed texts showed how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed specific operational details. Bloomberg's Tony Capaccio reports.

Trump and senior administration officials on Wednesday ratcheted up criticism of Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg — who National Security Advisor Mike Waltz mistakingly added to the chat — and maintained that specific timing of planned strikes, US weapons systems and targets contained in text messages did not amount to “war plans” or classified information.

“It had no impact on the attack, which was very successful,” Trump said during an appearance on a conservative talk radio show.

Yet that effort was failing to gain traction outside of the president’s most fervent loyalists. On Capitol Hill, Roger Wicker, the Mississippi Republican who serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, agreed with Democrats’ request to provide to lawmakers an expedited watchdog report on the incident. Wicker said he would also seek a secure briefing for his committee, and that he believed that the information disclosed in the chat was classified.

Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, acknowledged to a House panel that details of the attack had been shared. She maintained she “was not directly involved” in portions of the chat where some of the most sensitive material was provided, but faced tough questions about her claims that she couldn’t recall details of the exchange when testifying before the Senate one day earlier.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared undeterred by the blowback Wednesday, attacking Goldberg as an “anti-Trump hater” and calling Democratic critics in Congress “hysterical.”

“We are not going to bend in the face of this insincere outrage,” Leavitt said at her press briefing Wednesday.

But the saga has demonstrated the limits of the Trump administration’s defiant, flood-the-zone approach, in which officials — including the president — responded to The Atlantic’s initial report by attacking its veracity and dismissing concerns about a security breach as overblown.

In response, the magazine published a story Wednesday saying it had come to believe that “people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions” after Trump and other officials insisted that the disclosure did not include classified material.

The Atlantic published a transcript that included a text message from Hegseth to the full group — which included Vice President JD Vance, Waltz and others — giving precise times for two waves of US attacks against the Houthis, and featuring details of what weapons system would be used.

Trump again Wednesday downplayed the significance of a breach, saying during his talk-show appearance that “there weren’t details” in the texts “and there was nothing in there” that was “compromised.”

On the chain, Hegseth said the effort would include strikes by F-18 Hornet fighter jet and MQ-9 Reaper attack drones.

“1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package),” reads one text from Hegseth. “1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s).”

The Atlantic said the White House had asked it not to disclose the plans. Earlier Wednesday, Leavitt called the reporting a “hoax,” arguing that the magazine had described the content as “war plans” in its original story but “attack plans” in the subsequent post.

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