Atlantic Editor Erroneously Added to WH War Plans Group Chat

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, revealed he was accidentally included in a group chat with top White House officials who were discussing plans for military action in Yemen.

In an article released Monday, Goldberg wrote that on March 11 he received a "connection request" on the Signal app from White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, which he accepted, thinking that Waltz "wanted to chat about Ukraine, or Iran, or some other important matter."

On March 13, just days before the U.S. launched airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen, Goldberg received a notice that he "was to be included in a Signal chat group … called the 'Houthi PC small group,'" in which Waltz reportedly sent a message that read: "Team — establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening."

According to Goldberg, Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Waltz used the group chat to discuss possible military action in Yemen against the Houthis. The editor noted that one post from Hegseth "contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing."

Multiple members of Congress expressed outrage in response to the story, with Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., calling it an example of "total incompetence," and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., saying, "This administration is playing fast and loose with our nation’s most classified info, and it makes all Americans less safe."

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters it "sounds like a huge screw-up. I mean, is there any other way to describe it?"

He added that "somebody dropped the ball" and said he hoped the intelligence community would investigate.

A spokesperson for the State Department told C-Span: "We will not comment on the secretary's deliberative conversations and secondly that you should contact the White House."

President Donald Trump told reporters when asked about the incident: "I don't know anything about it. I'm not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me, it's a magazine that's going out of business ... but I know nothing about it."