President Trump said Wednesday that he would ask Defense Secretary Pete Hegses to see what kind of information, especially flight times, to classify, after it is included in the signal group chat.
The White House claimed that after the Atlantic released a screenshot on Wednesday, Hegseth showed specific information related to the weapon used and timing of the attack, then the information classified in the chat was not shared. The Pentagon chief told other top Signal officials that they had obtained the exact time of the signal for Yemen prior to the airstrike on March 15th, and that the MQ-9 drone took off for Yemen.
When asked if he would ask Hegses if flight times and sequencing should be considered as classification, Trump replied that he would consider it.
“Actually. I ask him. “Frankly, you can see those two ways. There are many ways to answer that question, but I'll look at him.”
The president also said national security adviser Mike Waltz “said responsibility” for the incident after accidentally adding Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat.
“I think it was a microphone. I don't know. I was told it was a microphone,” he said. “Mike – he took responsibility for that.”
Additionally, the president praised Hegses for his work with the Pentagon.
“Hegses does a great job, he had nothing to do with it,” Trump said.
Hegseth on Wednesday emphasized that there is nothing to share on social platform X with “not categorized as chat” and “no unit, location, route, flight path, source, method, classification information”.
The president also distanced himself from questions about whether the information shared is classified and told reporters, “That's what I heard.”
“I don't know. I don't know. I have to ask the people involved. I really don't know,” he added.
He was also asked about Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the Senate Armed Services Chairman, and told reporters, “I don't care.”
“I want to find out if there's a mistake or if the signal doesn't work, but the signal isn't a very good company, and maybe it's not that good. I think I know that now,” Trump said. “It was harmless because the attack was incredibly successful that night, and it was incredibly successful.”
He told reporters multiple times that the Houthis strike was successful and the focus was on the success of the operation when asked about the traffic light accident.
Hegseth has shown that after the Atlantic released a text that Goldberg initially thought was too sensitive, he moved to the heart of a storm of scandal, sharing specific details of the impending US attack on Yemen's Houthi rebels.
