this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2025
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Summary

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied allegations that he texted classified war plans to a Signal group chat that mistakenly included The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg.

The National Security Council confirmed the chat’s authenticity but called the inclusion of Goldberg an inadvertent mistake.

Lawmakers from both parties demanded investigations, with former CIA Director Leon Panetta warning of potential espionage violations.

Hegseth dismissed Goldberg as a "deceitful" journalist. Trump denied knowledge of the incident.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

To be fair he was probably blacked out at the time

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

No justice without truth, Congress won't impeach and DOJ won't prosecute, we've been here before with Mueller and the insurrection.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Don’t be negative. Push for change. Protest! https://www.mobilize.us/

[–] [email protected] 92 points 2 days ago (2 children)

pete hegseth was a DUI hire.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

He's in a really unique position in that he can claim to not remember doing something awful, and most likely be telling the truth.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Sooo Pete didn’t do it, but trump also says that Pete learned his lesson?

US is a joke. A very dangerous joke.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago

Admit it but say it isn't a big deal, but also deny that it ever happened. Let your followers pick whichever version they prefer. Profit!

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Disgusting comments about Europe in the group chat. The USA is a pariah state; the sooner we disentangle from it, the better.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago

House Speaker Mike Johnson to reporters on Monday after news of the messages spread: "I just was with the president in the Oval Office just now. The administration is addressing what happened. Apparently, an inadvertent phone number made it onto that thread. They are going to track that down and make sure it doesn't happen again."

Sounds great, how about we start by following fucking protocol? And not using a chat app on a damn mobile phone to have discussions on this scale?? Huh???

[–] [email protected] 75 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Lmfao

The editor in chief of The Atlantic wrote an op-ed on the whole episode, and they have corroborated and confirmed from multiple sources that he was, indeed, inadvertently shown data that is considered SCI in a Signal group chat that was likely conducted through the personal devices of administration officials.

There is no debate here. That happened. This is like rear ending someone in your car and totaling both vehicles and just refusing to even acknowledge that you even felt anything.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 days ago

It's like the "We're all trying to find the guy who did this" skit with the guy in the hotdog suit and the hotdog car.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 days ago (1 children)

LOL, you know what, sure. yeah. pete didn't add anybody to the chat. it's fine. the journalist got in there on his own. by eating carrots or something.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Pete didn't add him, Mike Waltz did. But that's neither here nor there, they all were in the wrong.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago

Except the journalist

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

In past times, resignations would have been required over something like this.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 days ago (3 children)

These fucking guys only ever lie and deny.

Are we really too stupid and weak as a country to be able to do anything about this?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago

It would seem the case - the US is impotent while the sitting president twiddles his thumbs and denies knowing his upper eschelon staff are using unsecure comms. Makes me laugh about the tough-guy image they want versus the limp-dick energy the display.

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[–] [email protected] 119 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

The classified plans aren't allowed out of the SCIF and the phone isn't allowed in the SCIF. Anything you learn in the SCIF cannot be stored, shared, or spoken about outside of a SCIF especially on electronic media. If anyone in the military did this, like lets say Chelsea Manning, and shared it with a journalist, like say Julian Assange, they would end up in prison for a while.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 2 days ago (7 children)
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[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago

All that is true. In addition, those communications are subject to records retention laws, so using signal and flagging them to be deleted is illegal in itself.

[–] [email protected] 248 points 3 days ago (18 children)

Ah yes - the classic Trump approach.... just yell Fake News as loud as possible.

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[–] [email protected] 78 points 2 days ago

Working the playbook. Step 1: Deny

[–] [email protected] 90 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Getting blackout drunk and sending texts isn't uncommon for raging alcoholics. Source: I used to be an alcoholic (sober for 6 years)

[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 days ago (8 children)

To be clear, Hegseth (the guy with a history of getting blackout drunk) isn't the same as Michael Waltz, the guy who invited Goldberg to the chat.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/

https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/03/jeffrey-goldberg-group-chat-broke-internet/682161/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Waltz

Waltz, unlike Hegseth, is not a random idiot, he definitely knows better.

"Waltz received four Bronze Stars while serving in the Special Forces during multiple combat tours in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa. He served in the Bush administration as a defense policy director in the Pentagon and as counterterrorism advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney."

As far as Hegseth (or any of the rest of them for that matter) was concerned, the list was all vetted and pre-approved people.

The fact that NONE of them actually vetted the list before saying anything speaks volumes.

They went down the line asking "Hey, who else in your department needs to be a contact on this?" and they all sounded off one by one, except Goldberg.

Nobody thought to ask "Hey, J.G., we haven't heard from you yet. In fact, wait, who is J.G.?"

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 days ago

6 years strong! Wooooo! Congrats!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

They're saying he didn't share classified war plans and you need to check the word usage with such lies. What probably happened was that they declassified everything that was shared. So what he is saying is now technically correct - the war plans are not classified. So he did not share 'classified' plans. This would also mean Tulsi is not 'lying' when she says that no classified information was shared. Typical obfuscation of facts by words.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Why is nobody talking about the fact that we are bombing Yemen? Yes, including a random person in a text channel talking classified information is a problem. But, why are we just brushing off the actual chat contents?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Because pointing out that America is bombing Yemen is like pointing out that water is wet.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There's a couple reasons -

  1. It wasn't so much "bombing Yemen" as it was, bombing a terrorist organization within Yemen's borders. This is something every American administration has done for decades. That makes it poor political fodder, you can't "one up" the competition with it.
  2. Most Americans would agree that the Houthis, once it is explained to them who they are, need to be bombed. The actual action would be reprehensible to some, but acceptable to most. You can't put pressure on an admin to change their tactics when they feel they have a plurality of support.
  3. The sad and undeniable fact is that in American politics - American lives are simply more important than foreign ones. That's not really unique to American culture, it's not meant as a criticism, it's just a sad reality. Bombing Yemen is pretty low risk for American lives - but sloppy OPSEC put American lives at huge risk so that's where the focus is.

In a perfect world, the fact that America is committing violence in other nations and is not realistically reigned in by International Laws or Treaties would be a point worth getting upset about. But that fact is over 100 years old and has been successfully normalized. The idea of incompetent buffoons operating the Department of Defense like a bunch of frat boys trying to organize a kegger is marginally newer and more impactful on the national psyche.

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[–] [email protected] 151 points 3 days ago (2 children)

He knows they have the screenshots and the NSC confirmed it, right?

https://x.com/JenGriffinFNC/status/1904221405618577650

NSC statement:  "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. 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." - NSC Spokesman Brian Hughes

The Trump administration does not deny this Signal group chat about the war planning for the Yemen strikes is real. Trump’s top national security advisers added reporter

@JeffreyGoldberg

@TheAtlantic

to the war planning text chain on non-government social media app, perhaps breaking secrecy laws. Read this shocking story below.

[–] [email protected] 105 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Pro tip: if you change the x.com to xcancel.com you can make the link use a twitter mirror and not give Musk revenue if people click on the link

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago

He must have been drunk and had a blackout.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

You're right Pete. It wasn't texting.

It was RCS through an untraceable encrypted messaging app named Signal

Which is WORSE since records are destroyed

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[–] [email protected] 95 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You dumb fuck, there are screenshots of all of it, plus your own people admitted it

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Even if everyone in the chat had a need-to-know, you do not use insecure 3rd-party software for classified communications. Secure networks already exist for this.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Not to mention why they are using it in the first place... so they can't be FOIA'd

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Shambolic reporting featuring bothsides arguements. Farce masquerading as truth. America deserves what it voted for (or didn't bother to).

[–] [email protected] 81 points 3 days ago

The fucking White House confirmed this shit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

First reaction from the republicans, This was a mistake, and we all make mistakes. Second round, these messages show how great our officials at doing their jobs and making the hard decisions. The latest , that never happened to begin with, it's a disgraced news outlet and a disgraced journalist. Even their spin doctors are dumb as fuck. Pick one and stick with it you imbeciles...this abc politics

[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 days ago (2 children)

downs entire glass of whiskey "wasn't me"

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

It's deny, deflect, and then what? Let's see I didn't do, I did it but her emails, I did it so what? An I missing a step?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I want to see the contents of the text message. Holy shit, what a bunch of dumb fucks.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Fuck you Pete 'DUI Hire' Hegseth.

You used a non-approved communication application and caused a massive data leak with you and your incompetent morons in office using OpSec that my junior engineers know better and if any one else did what you did, that's be fired and be facing charges.

Fucking pathetic children who can't take any accountability.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 3 days ago (5 children)
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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago

inadvertent mistake.

Lets give the benefit of the doubt and say it was a mistake. Is that a matter and a position, where such a mistake is tolerable? Or is it something that disqualifies for any position in that domain and demands immediate resignation?

Because if you seriously make a mistake, and you realize the gravity of it, you take responsibility for it. If you instead remain in position, you either don't recognize the gravity of it, which is an even bigger reason to resign, or you indeed acted with intent.

But in this case it did not start with inviting Goldberg. It started with making a chat group on an unauthorized app, likely using unauthorized devices to discuss matters that are explicitly forbidden to be taken out of specific permitted official channels.

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