Messages with Yemen war plans accidentally shared with reporter appear 'authentic': Official

WASHINGTON -- The White House said Monday a Signal group chat discussing a U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen that inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, "appears to be authentic."

Members of the Trump administration coordinated highly sensitive war plans on the unsecure group chat, Goldberg wrote in a report for the publication on Monday.

White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes shared with ABC News the statement he provided to The Atlantic confirming the veracity of a Signal group chat, which Goldberg said appeared to include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others.

"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," Hughes said in the statement.

The revelation sparked outrage and disbelief, including from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was dogged by criticism of her use of a private email server while at the State Department in the days before the 2016 presidential election that she lost to Trump.

"You have got to be kidding me," Clinton posted on X.

Hegseth disputed Goldberg's description of the chat late Monday.

"I've heard how it was characterized. Nobody was texting war plans, and that's all I have to say about that," Hegseth said shortly after landing for a layover in Hawaii on a trip to Asia.

Hegseth criticized Goldberg as "a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again, to include the, I don't know, the hoaxes of Russia, Russia, Russia, or the fine people on both sides, hopes, or suckers and losers."

"This is the guy that pedals in garbage. This is what he does," he added.

Asked about the incident, President Donald Trump said he "doesn't know anything about it," and later added that he was hearing about it for the first time from the reporter who asked the question.

Trump later appeared to mock the story, reposting on his Truth Social platform a post by his adviser Elon Musk on X that read, "Best place to hide a dead body is Page 2 of The Atlantic magazine, because no one ever goes there"

Goldberg told ABC News Live anchor Linsey Davis that he initially responded to a request to connect by someone purporting to be Waltz and later, as the user identified as Waltz put together as other a group chat with other high-ranking White House officials to discuss military action in Yemen, that someone was "running a hoax" on him.

"And the main reason I thought that actually, was that it seemed completely absurd to me that the national security leadership of the United States would be meeting, you know, on a messaging app to discuss forthcoming military action, and that then they would also sort of invite the editor of The Atlantic magazine to that conversation," he said.

"And then when the attack seems to be going well, they start sharing congratulatory texts, including emojis, fist emojis, fire emojis, American flag emojis with each other. And so that was that was the that was the day that I realized, 'Oh, this is possibly unbelievably, the leaders of the United States discussing this on on my messaging app," he said.

Asked for his reaction when he realized that the chat was real, Goldberg said, "Honestly, my reaction was, 'I think I've discovered a massive security breach in the United States national security system,' which is to say, it's almost automatically true that if the editor in chief of The Atlantic is being given access to this kind of information, weapon systems and packages and timing and weather in Yemen and all kinds of information about sequencing of particular events, then obviously there's a security breach."

The Pentagon referred questions about Hegseth's participation in the Signal discussion and the sharing of attack plans to the National Security Council and the White House.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked about the Atlantic's report -- including why members of the Cabinet were having a classified conversation over Signal and whether Rubio was concerned about the implications of the incident.

"Well, I have two very short things to say to you: First is that we will not comment on the secretary's deliberative conversations, and secondly, that you should contact the White House," Bruce responded.

Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, "The carelessness shown by President Trump's cabinet is stunning and dangerous."

"If true, this story represents one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen," Reed said. "Military operations need to be handled with utmost discretion, using approved, secure lines of communication, because American lives are on the line."

Other congressional Democrats expressed incredulity and called for investigations.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the incident "reckless, irresponsible and dangerous."

"These people are incredibly unqualified, irresponsible, and they're jeopardizing America's national security," he said of Trump's administration.

"This whole Trump administration is filled with lackeys and incompetent cronies. I'm not talking about any particular individual, though," he added. "I will note that the secretary of defense who was on that chain has got to be the most unqualified person ever to lead the Pentagon in American history. Think about that."

In a statement later Monday, Jeffries as a little more blunt in his criticism of the secretary of defense.

"It is yet another unprecedented example that our nation is increasingly more dangerous because of the elevation of reckless and mediocre individuals, including the Secretary of Defense," Jeffries said.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Republicans to work with Democrats on a "full investigation" into the incident.

"Mr. President, this is one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time," Schumer said on the Senate floor. "This kind of carelessness is how people get killed. It's how our enemies can take advantage of us. It's how our national security falls into danger."

Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, posted on X: Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in history, is demonstrating his incompetence by literally leaking classified war plans in the group chat...Hegseth and Trump are making our country less safe."

Delaware Sen. Chris Coons said the participants in the chat had "committed a crime -- even if accidentally" and added, "We can't trust anyone in this dangerous administration to keep Americans safe."

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego called the episode "Amateur hour."

"These are the genuises [sic] that are also selling out Ukraine and destroying our alliances all around the world," he added. "No wonder Putin is embarrassing them at the negotiation table."

House Speaker Mike Johnson downplayed the incident, saying, "The administration is addressing what happened, apparently, an inadvertent phone number made it onto that thread. They're going to track that down and make sure that it doesn't happen again."

Pushed if conducting such a discussion on on a third-party app was irresponsible, Johnson replied, "Look, I'm not going to characterize what happened. I think the administration has acknowledged it was a mistake, and they'll tighten up and make sure it doesn't happen again. I don't know what else you can say."

Johnson added he doesn't believe Waltz or Hegseth should be disciplined.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez, Shannon K. Kingston, John Parkinson, Jay O'Brien, Oren Oppenheim and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.