Messages with the war plans of Yemen inadvertently shared with the journalist seems “authentic”: official

The White House said a signal group chat on Monday discussing an American attack on the Houthis in Yemen which inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor -in -chief of the Atlantic, “seems authentic”.

Members of the Trump administration have coordinated very sensitive war plans on unsecured group chat, Goldberg wrote A report for publication Monday.

The spokesman for the National Security Council of the White House, Brian Hughes, shared with ABC News the declaration he provided at the Atlantic confirming the veracity of a group of signals, which, according to Goldberg, seemed to include the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the vice-president JD Vance, the national security adviser of the White House Mike Waltz and the Secret of the State Marco Rubio, among others.

“Currently, the message thread that has been reported seems to be authentic, and we are examining how inadvertently has been added to the chain. The wire is a demonstration of deep and thoughtful political coordination between senior officials. The continuous success of Operation Houthi shows that there was no threat to our soldiers or our national security,” said Hughes in the declaration.

The revelation triggered indignation and disbelief, including the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who was hampered by the criticism of his use of a private messaging server in the Department of State in the days preceding the 2016 presidential election that she lost against Trump.

“You have to make fun of me,” posted Clinton on X.

Hegseth challenged the description of Goldberg of the chat Monday evening.

“I heard how characterized it was. No one sent war plans, and that’s all I have to say about it,” HegSeth said shortly after landing for a stopover in Hawaii during a trip to Asia.

Hegseth criticized Goldberg as “a deceptive and highly discredited journalist, who has made a job as a hoax many times, to include them, I don’t know, the hoax of Russia, Russia, Russia or beautiful people on both sides, hopes or successions and losers.”

“It is the guy who pedals in the garbage. That’s what he does,” he added.

Asked about the incident, President Donald Trump said he “knew nothing” and later added that he heard about it for the first time to the journalist who asked the question.

Trump later seemed to make fun of the story, republishing on his social platform Truth an article by his Elon Musk advisor on X that reads: “The best place to hide a corpse is page 2 of Atlantic magazine, because nobody ever” “

Goldberg told ABC News Live the anchor Linsey Davis that he had initially responded to a connection request by someone who claims to be Waltz and later, as the user has identified as Waltz assembled as other group groups with other high -ranking White House officials to discuss military action in Yemen, that someone “directed a hoax”.

“And the main reason for which I was actually thinking was that it seemed to me completely absurd that the National Security Directorate of the United States would meet, you know, on a messaging application to discuss the next military action, and that they would also have somehow inviting the chief editor of Atlantic magazine to this conversation,” he said.

“And then when the attack seems to go well, they start to share congratulations texts, including emojis, fist emojis, fire emojis, American flag emojis.

Asked for his reaction when he realized that chat was real, goldberg said, “Honestly, My Reaction was, ‘i think i’ve discovered a massive security break in the United States National Security System,’ Which is to say, It’s Almost Automatically True That Chief of the Atlantic is Being Given Access to This Kind of Information, Weapon Systems and Packages and Timing and Weather in Yemen and All Kinds of Information About Squering of Particular Events, then Obviously There’s a Security Freaint. “

The Pentagon has returned questions about HegSeth’s participation in the discussion on the signal and the sharing of attack plans in the National Security Council and the White House.

The spokesperson for the State Department, Tammy Bruce, was asked about the Atlantic report – including why the members of the cabinet had a classified signal conversation and if Rubio was concerned about the implications of the incident.

“Well, I have two very short things to say to you: first, it is that we will not comment on the secretary’s deliberative conversations, and secondly, that you should contact the White House,” replied Bruce.

Democratic senator Jack Reed, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee classification, said in a statement: “The negligence shown by President Trump’s office is amazing and dangerous”.

“If it is true, this story represents one of the most flagrant failures of operational security and common sense that I have ever seen,” said Reed. “Military operations must be managed with the utmost discretion, using approved secure communication lines because the American lives are at stake.”

Other Congress Democrats expressed disbelief and called for investigations.

The chief of the Hakeem Jeffries minority described the incident “reckless, irresponsible and dangerous”.

“These people are incredibly unreserved, irresponsible and they endanger the national security of America,” he said about Trump’s administration.

“This whole Trump administration is filled with lackeys and incompetent friends. However, I am talking about a particular individual,” he added. “I will note that the defense secretary who was on this channel should be the most unreserved person to have directed the Pentagon in American history. Think about it.”

In a statement later Monday, Jeffries as a little more dull in his criticism of the Secretary of Defense.

“This is another unprecedented example that our nation is more and more dangerous due to the elevation of reckless and mediocre individuals, including the Secretary of Defense,” said Jeffries.

Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, urged the head of majority in the Senate, John Thune and the Senate Republicans, to work with the Democrats on a “complete investigation” on the incident.

“Mr. President, it is one of the most amazing violations of military information that I have read very, for a very long time,” said Schumer on the Senate soil. “This kind of negligence is the way people are killed. This is how our enemies can take advantage of us. This is how our national security is in danger.”

The Senator of Illinois, Tammy Duckworth, a lieutenant-colonel of the National Army Guard, posted on X: Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary most taken in history, demonstrates his incompetence literally in the run of war plans classified in the group cat … Hegseth and Trump make our country less safe. “”

Delaware senator, Chris Coons, said that cat participants had “committed a crime – even if it was accidentally” and added “we cannot trust anyone in this dangerous administration to ensure the safety of the Americans”.

The Senator of Arizona Ruben Gallego called the “amateur Hour” episode.

“These are the real [sic] It also sells Ukraine and destroys our alliances all over the world, “he added.” No wonder Putin embarrasses them at the negotiating table. “”

The president of the room, Mike Johnson, minimized the incident, saying: “The administration is aimed at what happened, apparently, a phone number inadvertently reached this wire. They will find this and ensure that it does not happen again.”

Pushed if the realization of such a discussion on a third -party application was irresponsible, Johnson replied: “Listen, I will not characterize what happened. I think that the administration has admitted that it was a mistake, and they will tighten and ensure that it does not happen again. I do not know what you can say.”

Johnson added that he did not believe that Waltz or Hegseth should be disciplined.

-Abc News’ Luis Martinez, Shannon K. Kingston, John Parkinson, Jay O’Brien, Oren Oppenheim and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.