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SIGNAL FALLOUT: Senate Grills Intelligence Chiefs as Security Breach Investigation Intensifies
Because apparently, secure messaging is optional when discussing military strikes
In what can only be described as a colossal security blunder of epic proportions, top Trump administration officials were caught discussing sensitive military operations in a Signal group chat that accidentally included a journalist. Yes, you read that right.
The bombshell story broke yesterday when The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg revealed he had been mistakenly added to a Signal group chat where Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, and other senior officials were coordinating U.S. military strikes in Yemen. Talk about an awkward group chat situation!
Today, intelligence chiefs faced the music in a contentious Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were grilled by Democrats who were, understandably, losing their minds over the security implications.
When pressed about the incident, Gabbard repeatedly dodged questions about whether she was the mysterious "TG" in the chat (subtle, right?), while both officials insisted that absolutely no classified information was shared. This directly contradicts Goldberg's reporting that the chat contained details about weapons packages, strike timing, and target information for the March 15 assault on Houthi militants. Someone's not telling the truth here, folks!
In a particularly heated exchange, Senator Jon Ossoff asked Ratcliffe if this was "a huge mistake," to which Ratcliffe boldly replied, "No." Because apparently accidentally adding a journalist to your war planning chat is totally fine in this administration's book.
The White House is desperately trying to downplay the whole fiasco. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted "no war plans were shared," while President Trump dismissed it as his administration's "only glitch in two months". Just a tiny oopsie involving national security!
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Hegseth claimed "nobody was texting war plans," which Goldberg immediately shot down as "a lie" in a CNN interview, stating, "He was texting war plans, he was texting attack plans". It's like watching a high-stakes version of "he said, she said" but with potential national security implications!
Republican Rep. Don Bacon, a former Air Force Brigadier General, didn't mince words about the security implications: "I will guarantee you, 99.99% with confidence, Russia and China are monitoring those two phones," he told CNN. So not only did they accidentally add a journalist, but they potentially gave Russia and China a front-row seat to U.S. military planning. Whoops!
Some Democrats, including Senator Mark Warner, have called for both Waltz and Hegseth to resign. Warner summed up the absurdity perfectly: "Security hygiene 101: Who are all the names?" Indeed, Senator. Indeed.
Next time you accidentally add your boss to a group chat trash-talking the company holiday party, just remember—at least you didn't accidentally add a journalist to your top-secret military planning session.