Fox News political commentator Brit Hume on Monday afternoon pushed back on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claim that “nobody was texting war plans” after news broke that Hegseth and other Trump administration officials discussed plans for an attack against Houthi rebels in Yemen on a text chain that mistakenly included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic.
“Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said outside a plane in Hawaii when asked about editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg’s access to the chat.
Hegseth also called Goldberg “a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”
Hume reposted a video of Hegseth’s comments on the platform X, saying, “Oh for God’s sake, the administration has already confirmed the authenticity of the message.”
Goldberg published a story Monday detailing his experience of being added to a group chat on Signal, an encrypted messaging service, full of high-level national security officials who discussed the administration’s plans to attack the Houthis in Yemen.
Waltz, Vice President Vance, Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe all appear to have been among the participants. So too, apparently, were key figures in Trump’s orbit including White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and key adviser Stephen Miller.
When Goldberg asked Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, for comment, he responded, “This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
Democrats have sharply criticized Hegseth following the news, while Republicans have aired concerns, with some calling for investigations into the incident but stopping short of demanding any action to be taken against the officials involved.
Soon after the news broke, the Trump White House released a statement supporting Hegseth and Waltz.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump “continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.”
On Monday, Fox News anchor John Roberts praised Goldberg hours after publishing the bombshell report.
“I would think that there are probably worse people that you could text your secret plans to,” Roberts said on Fox on Monday afternoon. “But it appears Goldberg has acted responsibly here in writing this article.”
