GOP Leaders Watching Hegseth After Signal Chat 'First Strike'

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's participation in a Signal chatroom discussing upcoming attacks on Houthi rebels in Yemen while a journalist was present in the room is the "first strike" for the Trump administration, according to Sen. Kevin Cramer, as he and several Republicans say they're keeping him under close watch.

"I think they should make sure it never happens again," Kramer, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, commented, reported The Hill Thursday. "It's the first strike in the early stages of an administration."

"I don't know how many strikes you get," he added. "In baseball, you get three. Maybe this is worth two. If mistakes like this continue to happen, we'll deal with them as it happens. My hope and my expectation is that it won't."

Republican lawmakers aren't calling on Hegseth to step down, but they are concerned about his decision to share details about when fighter jets would launch and the strike drones would hit, which Hegseth insisted to reporters Wednesday was not a discussion of war plans.

Another Republican senator, who was not named, said President Donald Trump is "not happy" about the situation but has decided to stand by Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz.

Waltz reportedly assembled the group chat and inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. Goldberg on Wednesday released the chat transcript, including a section with Hegseth giving a timeline for the impending strikes on the Houthis.

Other senators, meanwhile, say they're concerned about Hegseth's response to reporters' questions and his insistence that "nobody's texting war plans" after a spokesperson for the National Security Council confirmed that the group's texts look to be authentic.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said that while the White House is trying to show the difference between "war plans" and "attack plans" while slamming The Atlantic's reporting, the information should have remained classified.

"The information as published recently appears to me to be of such a sensitive nature that, based on my knowledge, I would have wanted it classified," he said.

Wicker and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the top-ranking Democrat on the Armed Services panel, said on Wednesday they are going to ask the administration to "expedite" an inspector general report and that all records of the senior officials' conversations on Signal be preserved.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Hegseth and the Trump officials need to admit they made a mistake, and "own it and fix it so it never happens again."

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, one of three Republicans who had voted against Hegseth's confirmation, called the Signal chat situation "egregious" but said it is up to Trump to decide what to do about Hegseth or Waltz.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who had struggled with his vote to confirm Hegseth, said Wednesday he does not regret his decision but said it's time to end the crisis by getting the facts out.

"It'll just end the intrigue, and we can get back to fulfilling the promises we made last year that got us elected," he said, adding that it was an "unnecessary communication" to share details of the strike.

Meanwhile, Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and John Cornyn, R-Texas, agreed that it is up to Trump about what happens next, with Cornyn rejecting the notion that Hegseth or Waltz should resign.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., denied that Hegseth shared war plans but acknowledged that he had detailed "very sensitive information" about an ongoing military operation.

Trump should stick with his team, but they need to learn from their mistakes, he added.