US President Donald Trump and some Republicans are seeking to reassure the public after reports that senior US officials leaked plans to attack the Houthis.
On March 24, the administration of US President Donald Trump and the Republican Party spoke out about the information that US officials mistakenly added journalists to a chat group discussing plans to attack the Houthis, according to The Hill.
The above development appeared after The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg said on March 24 that he was added to a chat group on the Signal messaging app along with a series of high-ranking US government officials, including US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.
The US officials are said to have discussed in the chat group about the US attack on the armed group Houthis (Yemen).
Speaking out about the incident, Minister Hegseth called Mr. Goldberg's story about being added to a chat group of US officials "false rumors".
"I heard the story. No one texted about war plans, and that's all I can say," Mr. Hegseth said.
When asked about the incident, President Trump said he "didn't know anything about it".
"I didn't know anything about it. I'm not a fan of The Atlantic. You guys told me," Mr. Trump told reporters on the afternoon of March 24.
Mr. Trump later reposted billionaire Elon Musk's post on social network X with the content: "The best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of The Atlantic magazine, because no one reads that."
A source told CNN that Mr. Trump had been informed about the incident.
The White House said Trump still has confidence in Waltz and Hegseth.
“As President Trump has said, the strikes on the Houthis have been very successful and effective. President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including National Security Adviser Mike Waltz,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
When asked about the incident, including why members of the US cabinet discussed classified information on Signal and whether Secretary Rubio was concerned about the fallout, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said: “There are two things I want to tell you very briefly: First, we are not going to comment on the secretary’s internal discussions. Second, you should contact the White House.”
On the Republican side, House Speaker Mike Johnson sought to downplay the incident.
“The administration is looking into this; it appears that some accounts were accidentally added to the chat group. The administration will get to the bottom of it and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the Trump administration has acknowledged it was a mistake and will tighten up to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Meanwhile, Senator Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the incident “unbelievable.”
Senator John Cornyn said the fact that a journalist was added to the chat group was “a serious mistake.”
Representative Don Bacon, a former Air Force brigadier general who specialized in intelligence, called the incident “disgraceful.”
“It’s disgraceful. Everyone sends the wrong message sometimes. But you can’t put classified information on unsecured apps like Signal. There’s no excuse for that,” Bacon told reporters.
“We are very concerned about this and will investigate it on a bipartisan basis,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, D-Calif., confirming that the committee “absolutely” plans to look into the matter. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast also expressed concerns about the use of Signal to discuss classified information. However, Mast did not support a “special investigation” because he said it was “not a systemic problem.”