The man whose word the Trump administration is swearing by refuses to speak.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth still refuses to give a straight answer on when exactly he declassified the plans he shared in a Signal group chat to attack Yemen.
Full text messages from the group chat, which included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, were released Wednesday and showed sensitive government information was shared, including timing of the airstrikes on Yemen.
“Mr. Secretary, did you share strike plans before they launched? Mr. Secretary, how do you square what you said with what your messages show?” a reporter asked Hegseth Wednesday afternoon. He walked away silently.
“Did you share classified information? Did you declassify that information before you put it in the chat?” Hegseth continued to ignore the questions.
Reporter: Did you declassify that information before you put it in the chat?Hegseth: pic.twitter.com/F3LNh0Hhkw
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 26, 2025
Hegseth’s refusal to answer comes just hours after Representative Johnny Gomez asked CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard if Hegseth—whom he referred to as “the main person involved in this thread”— was drunk when he sent the messages regarding Yemen in the chat.
On Monday, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that Mike Waltz had added him to a Signal chat with Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and multiple other defense Cabinet members. Hegseth called Goldberg a “deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist” when asked about it on Monday.
“We are prepared to execute, and if I had final go or no go vote, I believe we should,” Hegseth wrote in the chat. “This [is] not about the Houthis. I see it as two things: 1) Restoring Freedom of Navigation, a core national interest; and 2) Reestablish deterrence, which Biden cratered.”
If these attack plans—which Republicans are framing as just a chill, regular conversation—were truly unclassified long ago, the defense secretary should have no issue saying that plainly.
The post Pete Hegseth Runs Away When Asked About War Plans Group Chat appeared first on New Republic.
