Dems Explode Over Leak Of Secret War Plans In Signal Chat: ‘Heads Should Roll’

Jeffrey Goldberg’s Monday bombshell piece in The Atlantic has been met with outrage among Congressional Democrats. In the article entitled The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans - which reproduces text messages among top Trump national security officials – Goldberg explains that “US national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.”

Among some 18 individuals listed as members of a Signal group that the journalist was ‘inadvertently’ invited to included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President Vance, national security adviser Michael Waltz, Secretary of State is Marco Antonio Rubio, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

Golberg wrote, “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 journalist goes on to identify that it was Waltz who initially added him to the group, and that as the conversation unfolded, he was shocked and alarmed that all involved seemingly didn’t notice his name was listed in the group. We should note that all of this is also very bizarre because Goldberg is so obviously and rabidly anti-Trump.

The group and thread was initially engaged in a policy conversation on how to restore US and global shipping in the Red Sea, and the question potential public backlash if a bombing campaign on Yemen once again commenced…

But then, later on March 15 the conversation continued and actually turned to operational planning and then debriefing after execution of new bombing raids.

“According to the lengthy Hegseth text, the first detonations in Yemen would be felt two hours hence, at 1:45 p.m. eastern time,” Goldberg recalled. ”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.”

In the wake of the Atlantic author revealing and publishing these messages and more on Monday, National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes has offered confirmation on their authenticity.

“At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” he said in a Monday afternoon statement.

“The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security,” Hughes said.

“Send a message”: the below is among the most interesting moments from the Signal thread released by Goldberg:

Vance elsewhere is actually the only one that calls the war in Yemen “a mistake” that doesn’t advance US interests, but expresses willingness to go along with the consensus

This high-level confirmation has provoked outrage among Dems in Congress. Below are some examples via Axios:

• “This is an outrageous national security breach and heads should roll,” Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement to Axios.
• He added: “We need a full investigation and hearing into this on the House Armed Services Committee, ASAP.”
• “We can’t chalk this up to a simple mistake — people should be fired for this,” said Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), another Armed Services Committee member.

But Republicans are by and large shrugging it off. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, another Armed Services Committee member and former Air Force brigadier general, was cited in Axios as saying, “I’ve accidentally sent the wrong person a text. We all have.”

And more reaction…

Early reaction from Democratic senators https://t.co/Fbig0cmVbU pic.twitter.com/07It4HWKZs

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 24, 2025

Unfortunately, as yet none of the pushback and anger coming from Democrat leaders has focused on what we see as the real question and actual scandal–waging war in a foreign nation without Congressional approval– instead, all seem merely focused on the breach or leak aspect itself, involving ultra-sensitive national security conversations. 

Here’s how one prominent geopolitics account on X summarized what’s been gleaned from the Signal chat leak..

So just to recap:

-They didn’t think the Houthis were a real threat

-They didn’t think Americans would understand the strikes

-They did it anyway, to “send a message”

-And they did it on an unencrypted chat app with a journalist inside the group You cannot make this up.

This is how wars are started in 2025.

Jeffrey Goldberg helped start a 20-year failed war based on lies about non-existent WMDs, while we’re on the topic of actually insane national security stories as opposed to fake hysteria from dead-end neocon war pimps. https://t.co/cNKVzeUFrY

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 24, 2025

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The question remains why? Why would Goldberg (of all people) be added to such a sensitive group chat? Here’s one theory that makes sense.