“It’s embarrassing,” Waltz said in a Fox News interview. “We’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
What is Signal and why are government officials using it?
Signal is widely considered one of the most secure ways to send messages for the general public, but it is not approved for government use.
WASHINGTON – National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News on Tuesday he took “full responsibility for inviting a reporter onto a group Signal app chat of Trump administration officials discussing plans for a looming military strike on the Houthis in Yemen.
“I take full responsibility. I built the group,” Waltz said on “The Ingraham Angle.” “It’s embarrassing. We’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
Waltz inadvertently invited Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, to join the encrypted chat on called Houthi PC Small Group on March 11. Others in the chat included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Rafcliffe.
Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt each said no classified information was shared in the chat.
But after Goldberg’s report described the types of weapons to be used and the timing of the strikes, Democrats called for Hegseth and Waltz to resign over the security breach.
“Putting aside that classified information should never be discussed over an unclassified system,” said Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. “It’s also just mind-boggling to me that all these senior folks were on this line, and nobody bothered to even check – security hygiene 101 – who are all the names? Who are they?”
Trump defended Waltz, saying he won’t be fired over the incident. The president said the incident was a “mistake,” though there was “nothing important” in the Signal text thread.
“He’s not getting fired,” Trump told Fox News.