Houthis and the Blowhards: The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg Its War Plans

In possibly the most embarrassing breach of national security in the last 13.8 billion years, The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg reports:

On Tuesday, March 11, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz. Signal is an open-source encrypted messaging service popular with journalists and others who seek more privacy than other text-messaging services are capable of delivering. I assumed that the Michael Waltz in question was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz. I have met him in the past, and though I didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me, I did think it somewhat unusual, given the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with journalists—and Trump’s periodic fixation on me specifically. It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading as Waltz in order to somehow entrap me. It is not at all uncommon these days for nefarious actors to try to induce journalists to share information that could be used against them.
I accepted the connection request, hoping that this was the actual national security adviser, and that he wanted to chat about Ukraine, or Iran, or some other important matter.
Two days later—Thursday—at 4:28 p.m., I received a notice that I was to be included in a Signal chat group. It was called the “Houthi PC small group.”
A message to the group, from “Michael Waltz,” read as follows: “Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.”
The message continued, “Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.”
…
[On] Saturday, March 15, [] this story became truly bizarre.
At 11:44 a.m., the account labeled “Pete Hegseth” posted in Signal a “TEAM UPDATE.” I will not quote from this update, or from certain other subsequent texts. The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility. What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.
The only person to reply to the update from Hegseth was the person identified as the vice president. “I will say a prayer for victory,” Vance wrote. (Two other users subsequently added prayer emoji.)
According to the lengthy Hegseth text, the first detonations in Yemen would be felt two hours hence, at 1:45 p.m. eastern time. So I waited in my car in a supermarket parking lot. If this Signal chat was real, I reasoned, Houthi targets would soon be bombed. At about 1:55, I checked X and searched Yemen. Explosions were then being heard across Sanaa, the capital city.

The story is firewalled, but you can find a copy here.

Needless to say, reaction in the press and political intelligentsia has been immediate.

The Hill:

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton shared her surprise Monday about a report from The Atlantic’s editor, who said he was swept up in a text message chain with top Trump administration officials on plans for an attack on Houthi rebels.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Clinton said on X, sharing the eyes emoji along with The Atlantic article.

MaddowBlog:

Indeed, the list of questions is not short. Did these officials break the law? Was this the first time they used a private chat for this purpose, or is this a routine practice in the Trump White House? How many of these people will be asked to resign in the wake of this humiliating debacle? How many will be fired?

Do these guys always write as if they’re over-caffeinated middle schoolers playing video games? (Kevin Kruse, a historian at Princeton University, wrote in response to the reporting, “In private, these people seem immensely stupid.”) Do they remember what they said about Hillary Clinton, who was accused of using a private platform to discuss sensitive national security matter?

But as the political world comes to terms with the scope and scale of this genuine scandal, I’m stuck on the fact that the White House’s breathtaking incompetence appears to be undermining the national security of the United States in terrifying ways. Americans’ safety is in the hands of unqualified and inexperienced amateurs, who clumsily invited a journalist to join a chat about a military strike in a foreign country.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries:

This is reckless, irresponsible, and dangerous. Who are some of these people that Donald Trump had put into the most sensitive national security positions in America? …the secretary of defense who was on that chain had got to be the most unqualified person ever to lead the Pentagon.

Chris Hayes:

I mean very obviously Hegseth should resign, and if it were a Democratic administration this would be quickly be a consensus position.

Jen Bendery:

Radio silence from the chairs of the House Armed Services Committee (GOP Rep. Mike Rogers) and Senate Armed Services Committee (GOP Sen. Roger Wicker) re: Pete Hegseth and co. sharing highly classified war plans in Signal + including the editor in chief of The Atlantic in their group chat.

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I reached out to both of their offices a while ago. Nothin.

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More Dems aghast as Republicans say nothing at all.

“An inexcusable failure” and “a dangerous level of incompetence,” says Sen. Jacky Rosen, member of Senate Armed Services Committee + Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Politico:

‘Amateur Hour’

Members of Congress and national security staffers were stunned Monday by a bombshell report that top Trump administration officials — including the vice president and Defense secretary — discussed war plans in a Signal group chat.

Many raised concerns about the potential mishandling of classified information as well as sensitive details regarding U.S. war plans.

“Only one word for this: FUBAR,” Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), an Army veteran who sits on the Armed Services Committee, wrote on X. “If House Republicans won’t hold a hearing on how this happened IMMEDIATELY, I’ll do it my damn self.”

“Get the f*** out,” said one Democratic congressional aide, capturing a general feeling on Capitol Hill that important security protocols had been broken. It’s an “operational security nightmare,” the person said. The aide, and others, were granted anonymity to be candid about a sensitive security issue involving the administration.

…

President Donald Trump was asked about the report on Monday afternoon. “I don’t know anything about it,” he said. “I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic.”

…

“Every single one of the government officials on this text chain have now committed a crime — even if accidentally — that would normally involve a jail sentence,” said Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, the top Democrat on the panel that controls the Pentagon budget. “We can’t trust anyone in this dangerous administration to keep Americans safe.”

Andy Borowitz:

BREAKING HARD…