Hegseth: ‘Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan’

 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday doubled down on his assertion that he did not share classified plans to strike Houthi targets in a Signal group chat of Trump administration officials that was inadvertently shared with a journalist, who he claimed “has never seen a war plan.” 

In a combative post to the social platform X, Hegseth lambasted The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, for publishing the Signal group chat messages, in which the Pentagon chief relayed details about airstrikes in Yemen earlier this month that an initial article on the matter did not contain, including the specific timeline of the airstrikes and what weapons would be used. 

The Atlantic said it wanted to make public the texts so that readers could see them for themselves, given that Hegseth and other national security officials have accused Goldberg of lying about the content of the group chat in an attempt to discredit his reporting.

“No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information,” Hegseth said in his post.

The messages The Atlantic released do show specific information related to weapons used and the timing of attacks — including the exact times American F-18 fighter aircraft and MQ-9 drones took off for Yemen before the March 15 airstrikes.

“This Signal message shows that the U.S. secretary of defense texted a group that included a phone number unknown to him — Goldberg’s cellphone — at 11:44 a.m. This was 31 minutes before the first U.S. warplanes launched, and two hours and one minute before the beginning of a period in which a primary target, the Houthi ‘Target Terrorist,’ was expected to be killed by these American aircraft,” Goldberg and national security and intelligence reporter Shane Harris wrote.

“If this text had been received by someone hostile to American interests — or someone merely indiscreet, and with access to social media — the Houthis would have had time to prepare for what was meant to be a surprise attack on their strongholds. The consequences for American pilots could have been catastrophic.”

“Those are some really s—-y war plans,” Hegseth said in his post. “This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an ‘attack plan’ (as he now calls it). Not even close.”

Hegseth’s response follows arguments from other Trump administration officials, including White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who have latched on to The Atlantic labeling the Signal messages an “attack plan” in its latest headline rather than a “war plan” in its previous report.

Goldberg, meanwhile, has called that argument semantics, and The Atlantic noted that the White House opposed its publishing of the information.

Pentagon press secretary Sean Parnell also released a statement Wednesday in which he called The Atlantic reporters “hoax-peddlers” and said the additional Signal chat messages “confirm there were no classified materials or war plans shared.” 

Parnell insisted Hegseth’s messages were “merely updating the group on a plan that was underway and had already been briefed through official channels.”

The Trump administration in the past few days has pushed hard to downplay the significance of its top national security officials texting such sensitive information over the messaging app.

President Trump, when asked about the new The Atlantic reporting during a radio interview, insisted there weren’t details in the released chat that compromised anything, repeating that it was “really not a big deal.”

Vice President Vance said in a post to X that Goldberg “oversold what he had.”

And national security adviser Mike Waltz, who admitted Tuesday evening that he had mistakenly added Goldberg to the chat, said the published details included “No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS.”

That hasn’t placated multiple lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who on Wednesday called for Hegseth to be fired or resign.

Some in the GOP, meanwhile, have called for an investigation into the information breach, with Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) on Wednesday saying he believes the information detailing the attack plan against the Houthis should have been classified.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5215459-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-signal/