总统唐纳德·特朗普周二淡化了使用信号群聊据报道，高级官员正在讨论美国对也门胡塞人的袭击——当《大西洋月刊》的记者杰弗里·戈德堡“无意中”加入聊天时，这一事件被曝光。
特朗普声称，“据我所知，没有机密信息”，当时他在白宫与他的大使们会面时，被问及关于报道的事故的问题。特朗普站出来为国家安全顾问迈克尔·华尔兹并称赞这次军事行动是成功的。
“他们使用了一款很多人都在使用的应用程序，如果你想称之为应用程序的话。政府中有很多人使用，媒体中有很多人使用，”特朗普说。
戈德伯格总编辑在周一发表的一篇文章中写道，他被添加到商用信号应用程序的一个群聊中，包括国防部长皮特·海格塞斯和华尔兹在内的官员正在讨论如何阻止对也门胡塞武装分子的打击。戈德堡说，华尔兹显然加入了他的聊天。
《大西洋月刊》的报道只描述了信息链的运作部分，但没有透露细节。
当被问及是否有人会因为这场风暴而被解雇时，特朗普回应道:“我们已经很好地调查了这件事。老实说，这很简单...这只是可能发生的事情。这是可能发生的。”
特朗普袭击了大西洋和戈德堡，并对空袭的成功加倍下注。
“嗯，我的意思是，看，我们看着一切，你知道，他们对此很重视，因为我们有两个完美的月，”特朗普说。
华尔兹说，他让技术专家——而不是美国联邦调查局——调查此事，并告诉川普，“我们将尽可能保证一切安全。你的国家安全团队中没有人会将任何人置于危险之中。”
《大西洋月刊》回击了特朗普的说法。
该杂志在周二晚上的一份声明中说，“试图贬低和诋毁《大西洋月刊》、我们的编辑和我们的报道，显然是遵循了民选官员和其他当权者的剧本，他们敌视记者和所有美国人的第一修正案权利。”。“我们的记者继续无畏而独立地报道符合公众利益的真相。
“杰弗里·戈德堡(Jeffrey Goldberg)是该国最高国家安全领导人之间关于军事规划的信息和讨论的接收者，当时他无意中被添加到他们的非安全信息组，”它补充道。“这令人震惊——昨天国家安全委员会也证实了这一点。”
国会山的民主党人在整个周二都在反对政府。
马萨诸塞州众议员塞思·莫尔顿。一名海军退伍军人在新闻发布会上说，信号组聊天国家安全漏洞“将美国人的生命置于危险之中。”
莫尔顿表示，特朗普政府官员在这件事上撒谎，这“不在我们武装部队的领导手册中”
“哦，这份资料没有保密?甚至在不知道全部细节的情况下，我们知道这次行动的攻击时间就在信息中。我们先说清楚:那是机密信息。这就是你需要知道的一切，”他补充道。
这位议员承认，“这里没有借口，但显然也没有责任，很明显，赫格塞斯部长在处理这件事时，没有荣誉，没有责任感，对自己的行为完全没有责任。”
众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯(Hakeem Jeffries)在群聊中呼吁解雇赫格塞斯。
他在一份声明中说:“皮特·赫格塞斯是美国历史上最不合格的国防部长。”"他的行为震撼了良知，危及了美国人的生命，并可能违反了法律."
周二早些时候，民主党人就信号的使用和聊天中讨论的信息盘问了国家情报总监塔尔西·加巴德和中央情报局局长约翰·拉特克利夫。
这些情报官员在参议院情报特别委员会前作证，作为先前安排的听证会的一部分，他们还声称消息链中没有机密信息。
面对参议院民主党人提出的为什么《大西洋月刊》报道的攻击顺序或时间的信息不被视为机密的问题，拉特克利夫说，国防部长黑格斯有权决定什么是机密或不机密。加巴德把这些问题留给了国防部。
拉特克利夫还表示，他认为国家安全顾问瓦尔兹希望这次聊天是“高级官员之间的一种协调机制，但不是使用高端或机密通信来代替任何机密信息。”
该委员会副主席、民主党参议员马克·华纳(Mark Warner)抨击这一事件是“草率的”，并表示其他人也会因同样的行为而被解雇。华纳还敦促官员与立法者分享这些信息，此前他们表示这些信息不包含机密信息。
“如果没有机密材料，请与委员会分享。你不能两者兼得，”他说。
在听证会上，委员会中的共和党人没有就这个问题提出太多问题，听证会的重点是全球威胁。尽管印第安纳州共和党参议员托德·杨(Todd Young)表示，他将在闭门会议中就信号事件提问。
白宫国家安全委员会的官员表示，他们“正在审查”戈德堡是如何被错误地添加到包括几名国家高级军事官员在内的18人小组聊天中的。
新闻秘书卡罗林·莱维特周二证实了这一评估，但表示“没有讨论‘战争计划’。”她补充说，没有机密材料被发送到信号群聊。
“白宫法律顾问办公室为特朗普总统的高级官员尽可能安全有效地沟通提供了许多不同平台的指导，”她说。
国家安全委员会发言人布莱恩·休斯(Brian Hughes)在一份声明中说:“目前，报道的消息似乎是真实的，我们正在审查一个无意中的数字是如何被添加到链中的，”该声明在《大西洋月刊》首次发表后被发送到美国广播公司新闻。
审查的范围，包括它是否会试图确定为什么关于军事规划的高层讨论是在官方渠道之外进行的，从休斯的声明中还不清楚。
由于这次惨败，特朗普没有承诺改变程序或完全切断政府内部的信号使用。
“我不认为这是我们期待再次使用的东西。我们可能会被迫使用它。你可能处于需要速度而不是总体安全的情况下，你可能被迫使用它，但总的来说，我认为我们可能不会经常使用它，”他说。
尽管特朗普总统努力淡化这一事件，但他一再表示他不喜欢这种沟通方式，称他认为最好是在情况室进行这些对话。
“有时候，有人能抓住这些东西。特朗普说:“坦率地说，这是当你不坐在没有电话的情况室里时，你要付出的代价之一，这永远是最好的。
“看，如果由我决定，所有人都会一起坐在一个房间里，”特朗普后来说。“这个房间会有坚固的铅墙、铅天花板和铅地板。但是，你知道，生活并不总是让你这样做。”
Trump downplays Yemen war plans group chat fiasco: 'It can happen'
PresidentDonald Trumpon Tuesday downplayed the use of aSignal group chatreportedly among top officials to discuss a U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen -- brought to light when a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, was "inadvertently" added to the chat.
Trump claimed there "was no classified information as I understand it," when he was peppered with questions on the reported mishap during a meeting with his ambassadors at the White House. Trump came to the defense ofnational security adviser Michael Waltzand touted the military operation as a success.
"They used an app, if you want to call it an app, that a lot of people use. A lot of people in government use, a lot of people in the media use," Trump said.
Goldberg, theeditor-in-chiefof The Atlantic, wrote in a piece published Monday that he was added to a group chat in the commercially available Signal app in which officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Waltz, were discussing impeding strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen. Goldberg said he was apparently added to the chat by Waltz.
The story in The Atlantic only described the operational part of the message chain, but did not divulge specifics.
When asked if anyone would be fired as a result of the firestorm, Trump responded: "We've pretty much looked into it. It's pretty simple, to be honest ... It's just something that can happen. It can happen."
Trump attacked The Atlantic as well as Goldberg and doubled down on the success of the airstrikes.
"Well, I mean, look, we look at everything and, you know, they've made a big deal out of this because we've had two perfect months," Trump said.
Waltz said he had technical experts -- rather than the FBI -- looking into the matter and told Trump, "We're going to keep everything as secure as possible. No one in your national security team would ever put anyone in danger."
The Atlantic pushed back against Trump's claims.
"Attempts to disparage and discredit The Atlantic, our editor, and our reporting follow an obvious playbook by elected officials and others in power who are hostile to journalists and the First Amendment rights of all Americans," the magazine said in a statement Tuesday evening. "Our journalists are continuing to fearlessly and independently report the truth in the public interest.
"Jeffrey Goldberg was the recipient of information about and discussion of military planning among the country’s top national security leaders when he was inadvertently added to their non-secure messaging group," it added. "This is stunning — and was confirmed yesterday by the National Security Council."
Democrats on Capitol Hill sounded off against the administration over the incident throughout Tuesday.
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a Marine veteran, said during a news conference that the Signal group chat national security breach "put American lives at risk."
Moulton said Trump administration officials are lying about the incident, which is "not in the leadership manual for our armed services."
"Oh, this information wasn't classified? Without even knowing the full details, we know that the time of attack for this operation was in the message. Let's be clear: That's classified information. That's all you need to know," he added.
The congressman acknowledged that there is "no excuse here but there is also clearly no accountability, and it's very clear that Secretary Hegseth, with how he is handling this, has no honor, has no sense of duty and has absolutely zero accountability for his own actions."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called for Hegseth to be fired over the group chat.
"Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in American history," he said in a statement. "His behavior shocks the conscience, risked American lives and likely violated the law."
Earlier Tuesday, Democrats grilled Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe over the use of Signal and the information discussed on the chat.
The intelligence officials, who were testifying as part of a previously scheduled hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, also asserted there was no classified information included in the message chain.
Facing questions from Senate Democrats on why information on attack sequencing or timing, as reported by The Atlantic, would not be considered classified, Ratcliffe said Defense Secretary Hegseth had authority to determine what was classified or not. Gabbard deferred such questions to the Defense Department.
Ratcliffe also said he believed national security adviser Waltz intended the chat to be "a mechanism for coordinating between senior level officials, but not a substitute for using high side or classified communications for anything that would be classified."
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the vice chairman of the panel, slammed the incident as "sloppy" and said others would have been fired for the same conduct. Warner also pressed officials to share the messages with lawmakers after they said they contained no classified information.
"If there was no classified material, share it with the committee. You can't have it both ways," he said.
Republicans on the panel did not raise as many questions on the issue during the hearing, which had been set to focus on worldwide threats. Though Sen. Todd Young, a Republican of Indiana, said he would be asking questions about the Signal incident in a closed-door session.
Officials with the White House's National Security Council said they "are reviewing" how Goldberg could have been mistakenly added to the 18-member group chat that included several of the nation's top military officials.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the review on Tuesday, but said that "no 'war plans' were discussed." She added that no classified material was sent to Signal group chat.
"The White House Counsel's Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump's top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible," she said.
"At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain," NSC spokesperson Brian Hughes said in a statement, which was sent to ABC News after first being published by The Atlantic.
The scope of the review, including whether it would attempt to determine why high-level discussions about military planning were taking place outside of official channels, was not immediately clear from Hughes' statement.
Trump did not commit to changing procedure or cutting off completely the use of Signal within the administration as a result of the fiasco.
"I don't think it's something we're looking forward to using again. We may be forced to use it. You may be in a situation where you need speed as opposed to gross safety, and you may be forced to use it, but, generally speaking, I think we probably won't be using it very much," he said.
Despite his effort to downplay the incident, President Trump repeatedly indicated he does not like this means of communication, saying he thinks it is best to be in the Situation Room for these conversations.
"Sometimes somebody can get onto those things. That's one of the prices you pay when you're not sitting in the Situation Room with no phones on, which is always the best, frankly," Trump said.
"Look, if it was up to me, everybody would be sitting in a room together," Trump later said. "The room would have solid lead walls and ceiling and a lead floor. But, you know, life doesn't always let you do that."
