BURSTDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended himself on Tuesday amid controversy surrounding a Signal group in which top Trump administration members discussed an attack on Yemen — mistakenly adding 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 on 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 messages in the Signal group chat that Goldberg inadvertently gained access to were published by The Atlantic. The messages show details about the Yemen attack, including the strike's specific timeline and the weapons used.
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.