The Atlantic publishes Signal group chat messages: What did Pete Hegseth, Mike Waltz, JD Vance write?
The Atlantic is showing receipts.
After Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other cabinet and Trump administration officials denied that any classified information or “war plans” were disseminated in the Signal chat Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was privy to, the magazine on Wednesday published the exchange.
Goldberg and the Atlantic’s Shane Harris said in their Wednesday piece that the outlet doesn’t normally publish information on military operations in cases where that information can jeopardize soldiers’ lives.
After Trump, Hegseth, National Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe attempted to discredit Goldberg’s reporting, the outlet made the decision to publish the group texts in which the officials discussed air strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump—combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts—have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions,“ Wednesday’s article stated. ”There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared.”
According to the messages published Wednesday, Hegseth gave a timeline of the air strikes, beginning at 11:44 a.m. EDT March 15 — the day of the operation against the Houthis.
“Just confirmed with CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch,” Hegseth purportedly messaged the group, referring to U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East.
At 12:15 p.m. EDT, according to the published group chat, is when F-18s would begin to launch, Hegseth purportedly wrote.
The F-18s’ first strike trigger window would start around 1:45 p.m. EDT, Hegseth wrote, adding information about one of the military’s human targets.
“Target Terrorist is @ his known location so [the strike] should be on time,” the secretary wrote.
Drones would also launch at that time.
At 2:10 p.m. EDT, the second strike package of F18s would launch, followed by drone strikes on the operation’s second target.
“(THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ”Trigger Based” targets,)” Hegseth wrote.
At 3:36 p.m. EDT, according to the defense secretary’s timeline, the F-18s would start the second strike, accompanied by sea-based Tomahawk missiles.
Hegseth said further information on the timeline would “follow.”
“We are currently clean on OPSEC,” Hegseth purportedly wrote, referring to operational security, meaning that the details of the operation were secure and could not get into the wrong hands.
“Godspeed to our warriors,” Hegseth wrote.
Vice President JD Vance responded, “I will say a prayer for victory.” Two others in the chat added the praying hands emoji to Vance’s message.
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz then gave an update on the mission, hailing it as a success.
“VP. Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID. Pete, Kurilla, the IC, amazing job,” wrote Waltz, referring to Hegseth, CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Kurilla and the intelligence community.
“Excellent,” Vance responded.
About 25 minutes later, Waltz responded with three emojis: a fist, an American flag and fire.
Added Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “Good Job Pete and your team.”
“CENTCOM was/is on point,” Hegseth replied. “Great job all. More strikes ongoing for hours tonight, and will provide full initial report tomorrow. But on time, on target, and good readouts so far.”