Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, on Tuesday urged President Trump to immediately fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for discussing sensitive details of a pending strike in Yemen in a high-level group Signal chat that included a journalist.
“Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified secretary of defense in American history,” Mr. Jeffries wrote in a letter sent to Mr. Trump at the White House, which was obtained by The New York Times. “His continued presence in the top position of leadership at the Pentagon threatens the nation’s security and puts our brave men and women in uniform throughout the world in danger.”
Since the revelations on Monday, several Democrats have called for the resignations of Mr. Hegseth and the other senior national security officials involved in the leaked chat, but the letter made Mr. Jeffries the highest-ranking Democrat on Capitol Hill to call for the defense secretary to lose his job. Republicans have mostly rallied around the Trump administration, reacting to the episode with a collective shrug.
While Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, is reported to have added Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic to the group discussion, Mr. Hegseth is coming under increasing scrutiny for discussing highly sensitive military operations against Houthi rebels on the commercial messaging application.
At an intelligence hearing earlier Tuesday, Democratic senators assailed the handling of the material as reckless and dangerous and said lower-level officials or military personnel would be fired for such a breach. Two leaders of the nation’s intelligence community, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, told senators they deferred to Mr. Hegseth about what could be shared on the Signal app when it came to the military.
Mr. Jeffries, who has previously been highly critical of Mr. Hegseth, told Mr. Trump that he should be “fired immediately.”
“The so-called secretary of defense recklessly and casually disclosed highly sensitive war plans — including the timing of a pending attack, possible strike targets and the weapons to be used — during an unclassified national security group chat that inexplicably included a reporter,” Mr. Jeffries wrote. “His behavior shocks the conscience, risked American lives and likely violated the law.”
Mr. Hegseth, a National Guard combat veteran and former Fox News personality, was confirmed to his post earlier this year by only the narrowest of margins, with Vice President JD Vance having to break a tie in the Senate after three Republicans joined all 47 Democrats in opposing him.
Mr. Hegseth came under criticism for questionable personal behavior such as excessive drinking and sexual misconduct that has sunk nominees in the past. Mr. Trump and his allies mounted an intense lobbying campaign to win approval for Mr. Hegseth and were successful after Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, dropped his opposition and supported Mr. Hegseth.
Last month, Mr. Jeffries had been critical of the Trump administration for firing top leaders at the Pentagon, including Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In a statement, he said that move was particularly troubling “given the presence of a woefully unqualified secretary of defense who the Senate Republicans inexplicably confirmed.”
He again assailed Mr. Hegseth on Monday as news of the breach became public, and he called for a congressional investigation.
“We were promised that Donald Trump was going to hire the very best,” Mr. Jeffries told reporters. “It’s all phony.”
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