As fallout from the group chat scandal roils the administration, the White House reaffirmed President Donald Trump’s confidence in his national security team, even as the administration scrambles to talk about anything other than the leaked war plans.
The details of the Signal group chat, which included senior administration officials and, for one reason or another, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, have dominated headlines since the story broke Monday.
As Goldberg has detailed, he was added to a Signal group chat in which senior administration officials discussed plans to bomb the Houthis in Yemen. The group included people such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Since the story broke, the administration has tried out a series of responses, including claiming that the war plans leaked in the group chat were not “war plans”; trotting out National Security Adviser Mike Waltz to apologize for the leak; and most recently, calling the whole fiasco a “hoax.”
“This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump hater who is well known for his sensationalist spin,” Leavitt told reporters at a press conference Wednesday, adding that Trump “continues to have confidence in his national security team.”
Later at the press conference, Leavitt attempted to direct journalists’ attention to new auto tariffs that Trump is set to announce later today after repeatedly receiving questions about whether or not anyone would be fired due to the leak.
“There’s a lot of different things going on in the world. We have tariffs possibly being implemented later today. The president is going to talk about that at four o’clock this afternoon,” Leavitt said.
Leavitt ultimately ended the press conference early, after just 24 minutes, saying: “Sorry, it’s a bit shorter today, guys.”
Earlier on Wednesday, The Atlantic published the full details of what went on in the group chat, titled “Houthi PC small group.” In the group chat, Hegseth detailed American actions, including a minute-by-minute timeline of the bombings and the weapons being used. They also discussed casualty reports.
“THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP,” states one of Hegseth’s texts.
The growing scandal has engulfed more than just the White House, with members of the administration, like Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, facing questions from Democratic legislators at hearings this week. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is promising to measure the testimony of administration officials against the record of the text chain.
On the legal front, a case concerning whether the use of Signal violated federal recordkeeping laws has since landed on the desk of Judge James Baosberg, a federal district judge for Washington, DC, who has become a target for conservatives due to his insisting on due process in deportation cases.
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