President Donald Trump is supporting Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth amid calls from some Democrats for Hegseth’s resignation due to a leaked Signal chat that contained details about a military operation in Yemen.<\/p>\n
The president addressed the issue after Hegseth inadvertently shared information about the strike with administration officials in a Signal chat that included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. Goldberg published the complete messages on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Following the scandal, several Democratic lawmakers urged Hegseth to resign, prompting reporters to ask Trump if he believed Hegseth might consider stepping down.<\/p>\n
\u201cHegseth is doing a great job; he had nothing to do with this. How can you involve Hegseth in this?\u201d Trump responded.<\/p>\n
Trump also noted that his national security advisor, Mike Waltz, took responsibility for mistakenly including Goldberg in the Signal chat.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike Waltz \u2026 he accepted responsibility, I believe. It had nothing to do with anyone else. It was Mike, I guess, I don\u2019t know, I was told it was Mike,\u201d Trump said when questioned about the investigation.<\/p>\n
The president downplayed the controversy regarding whether Hegseth had shared sensitive information that could have jeopardized the operation, emphasizing the mission’s success.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no harm done because the attack was unbelievably successful that night,\u201d Trump stated.<\/p>\n
Trump questioned why Democrats were calling for Hegseth’s resignation and speculated on the reliability of the Signal app.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, it\u2019s all a witch hunt \u2026 you want to ask about whether or not Signal works, I don\u2019t know if Signal works; I think it could be defective, to be honest with you,\u201d Trump remarked.<\/p>\n
The encrypted app, which deletes messages after they are read, is commonly used in Washington, D.C., for communication.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou use Signal, we use Signal, and everybody uses Signal, but it could be a faulty platform, and we\u2019ll have to find that out,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n
Arizona Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly called for Hegseth\u2019s resignation over the sharing of operational details on the platform.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Signal incident is what happens when you have the most unqualified Secretary of Defense we\u2019ve ever seen. We\u2019re fortunate it didn\u2019t cost any servicemembers their lives, but for the safety of our military and our country, Secretary Hegseth needs to resign,\u201d Kelly posted on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could have endangered our men and women!\u201d Gallego wrote on social media. \u201cThe Secretary of Defense must resign. The incompetence and cover-up are embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, Hegseth defended himself on X, asserting that he did not disclose any classified information in the chat and criticized The Atlantic for misrepresenting his messages as \u201cwar plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Atlantic released the so-called \u2018war plans,\u2019 which include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information. Those are some really poor \u2018war plans,\u2019\u201d Hegseth wrote on X.<\/p>\n
On March 15, Hegseth sent a message titled \u201cTeam Update\u201d to a group of senior Trump administration officials, detailing the planned military strikes, including timing and weaponry.<\/p>\n
Hegseth maintained that he was merely providing a \u201cteam update,\u201d reiterating that he did not share any \u2018war plans.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cMy job is to provide real-time updates. General updates keep everyone informed. That\u2019s what I did. That\u2019s my role,\u201d Hegseth added.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also addressed questions about the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly, someone made a mistake\u2014someone made a significant error by adding a journalist. Nothing against journalists, but they shouldn\u2019t be on that platform. None of the information shared at any point threatened the operation or the lives of our servicemen,\u201d Rubio stated, emphasizing that there was no classified information in the chat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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