On Wednesday morning, The Atlantic released the Signal messages from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other government officials after many had argued that no “war plans” were shared in the unencrypted group message.
The released messages purport to show the exact opposite, with exact times and expected equipment of planned strikes against a terrorist group in Yemen. Earlier in the week, Secretary Hegseth bluntly stated “Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that,” when asked about the situation.
The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to the group message that included Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, among numerous others. In a story released on Monday, the magazine shared that it had received classified communications on the non-secured messaging app. However, it said it did not publish the text messages that had contained classified information out of an abundance of caution.
After strong denials from many of the players involved, and intense scrutiny subjected at Goldberg, the outlet released the text messages on Wednesday morning.
On social media, reaction from both sides of the aisle ranged from a feeling that some members of the exchange had committed perjury in their messages to Congressional committees, while others argued that the messages show Hegseth was correct by stating there were no “war plans” shared in the conversations.
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