Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg passionately spoke out after Jeffrey Goldberg—the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic—revealed he was invited into a Signal chat with high-level Trump administration officials discussing military strategy surrounding their war strikes in Yemen.
Goldberg revealed a highly unusual and concerning situation where senior Trump administration officials were allegedly discussing war plans over a group chat on Signal. Goldberg recounted that Representative Mike Waltz added him to an 18-person group chat, which he initially suspected was a hoax or disinformation campaign.
However, he soon realized it was authentic and included key national security figures such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who reportedly shared sensitive information that could have jeopardized American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the Middle East; Vice President J.D. Vance; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Goldberg described the situation as becoming "truly bizarre" on March 15, just four days after he was added to the group chat. At around 11:44 a.m. ET, Hegseth sent a message to the group containing “precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing” for U.S. military strikes on Yemen that were set to occur about two hours later.
When those strikes were carried out as planned, Goldberg realized that the group chat and the information shared were indeed legitimate, confirming the seriousness and authenticity of the discussion.
Buttigieg stressed the danger of the situation in a colorful post on BlueSky that included a link to Goldberg's article:
"From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of f**kup imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe."
You can see his post below.
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In a separate video, Buttigieg commented on "Signal Gate", including yet another f-bomb:
"Very powerful, very senior White House officials, it turns out, discussed highly classified war plans not only an unclassified channel but accidentally, and randomly, it seems, including a journalist. To see this administration claiming that it cares about competence and merit and then be responsible for an epic f**k up like this demonstrates that they are not serious people."
"I was an intelligence officer for about seven years in the U.S. Navy reserve and I occasionally handled highly classified information during my time in the Cabinet as well. It can be hard to explain just how much goes into keeping that information safe. It is only available to people with a security clearance and a need to know."
"It's only discussed in certain facilities that are hardened to ensure that they don't have the same vulnerability to surveillance as most places. And importantly, we only ever use classified systems to discuss classified information."
"America needs answers as to why an unclassified, commercially available app was used and even more importantly, how some of the most powerful people in this country didn't know that they accidentally included a journalist while they were discussing classified war plans that they had yet to authorize and execute."
Buttigieg noted that he knows "Americans who have lost their lives due to intelligence failures, saying that an intelligence failure of this magnitude raises the question of whether "there is any place for merit or competence in this administration at all."
He concluded:
"If there are not highly serious consequences for this level of screwup, then it will make clear that all of the bluster about merit that you hear about from this White House is just bulls**t."
"We deserve so much better than this. It is getting clearer by the day that the people in charge of the American government cannot keep the American people safe."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Many echoed Buttigieg's criticisms.
After the strikes were carried out as planned, Goldberg decided to leave the group chat. Seeking clarification, he reached out to officials to inquire about the authenticity of the conversation. National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes later confirmed to him that the thread was real, validating the bizarre and unsettling situation Goldberg had found himself in.
Hughes said "the thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials," adding that "the ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security.”
When reporters asked about Goldberg’s story on Monday, Trump responded by claiming he had no idea what they were referring to. He said, "You are telling me about it for the first time,” distancing himself from any knowledge of the situation.
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