Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) issued a statement calling for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign after The Atlantic published an article showing private Signal messages between Trump administration cabinet members, in which Hegseth shared what the magazine labeled “attack plans.”
In a press release issued on Wednesday, Duckworth said that “every other official who was included” in the Signal group chat, in which cabinet members discussed upcoming military strikes on the Houthis, “must be subject to an independent investigation.”
“Pete Hegseth is a f*cking liar,” Duckworth said. “This is so clearly classified info he recklessly leaked that could’ve gotten our pilots killed. He needs to resign in disgrace immediately.”
“If Republicans won’t join us in holding the Trump Administration accountable, then they are complicit in this dangerous and likely criminal breach of our national security,” Duckworth added.
Duckworth’s statement comes after Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, released an article in which he revealed that he had inadvertently been added to a Signal chat entitled “Houthi PC small group,” by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz. Other members in the group chat included Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Hegseth, among others.
In the article, Goldberg shares how several cabinet members had a back and forth discussion, days before the United States carried out strikes on the Houthis, in Yemen’s capital of Sanaa.
Per Goldberg’s article, on Saturday, March 15, Hegseth sent a message which “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 length 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.
On Wednesday, The Atlantic released another article that shared the contents of Hegseth’s message in the Signal chat:
At 11:44 a.m. eastern time, Hegseth posted in the chat, in all caps, “TEAM UPDATE:”
The text beneath this began, “TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.” Centcom, or Central Command, is the military’s combatant command for the Middle East. The Hegseth text continues:
- “1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”
- “1345: ‘Trigger Based F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)”
Per The Atlantic, Hegseth’s message continued to say:
- “1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)”
- “1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)”
- “1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.”
- “MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)”
- “We are currently clean on OPSEC”—that is, operation security.
- “Godspeed to our Warriors.”
Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong previously reported that several members of the Trump administration, including Waltz and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, have dismissed the idea that these were “war plans,” adding that no locations or sources were included in the messages.
“No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS,” Waltz wrote in a post on X. “Foreign partners had already been notified that strikes were imminent. BOTTOM LINE: President Trump is protecting America and our interests.
“The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT ‘war plans,’” Leavitt wrote in a post on X. “This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin.”
“So, let’s me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X.
As Breitbart News reported, on Tuesday, President Donald Trump revealed that a National Security Council staffer and aide to Waltz had added Goldberg to the Signal chat.
