On March 24, The Atlantic published a bombshell report that Pete Hegseth, former Fox News host turned secretary of defense, shared plans discussing a forthcoming attack in Yemen in a Signal group chat with other high-level Trump administration officials that also mistakenly included The Atlantic’s Jeffery Goldberg. After running defense for Hegseth during his confirmation hearing, Fox News again went to work cleaning up his mess by downplaying the seriousness of the growing scandal and attacking Goldberg instead.
When The Atlantic followed up two days later and released transcripts of the Signal discussions revealing seemingly highly classified information about imminent U.S. military action, Fox doubled down on its earlier denials and claimed the story “overpromised.”
On Monday, Fox News immediately reacted to “Signalgate” by telling its viewers that sharing such information isn’t a big deal. Host Jesse Watters downplayed the texts, telling his audience, “Did you ever try to start a group text? You're adding people and you accidentally add the wrong person? All of a sudden your Aunt Mary knows all your raunchy plans for the bachelor party? Well, that kind of happened today with the Trump administration.”
Fox News personalities also suggested Goldberg was to blame for the leak. Fox News host Laura Ingraham called The Atlantic editor-in-chief “a longtime journalistic adversary of President Trump’s,” and Watters suggested Goldberg “sneaked his way in” and deceived Trump administration officials. Fox host Will Cain claimed “the bigger takeaway” from the messages was “insight, a transparent insight, into the thought process and dialog of our national leaders.”
On Wednesday, The Atlantic released the transcript of the texts that appeared to be classified, including specific details such as the timing of the strikes and type of weaponry to be used. According to CNN Pentagon and national security correspondent Natasha Bertrand, “The information Secretary of Defense Hegseth disclosed in the Signal chat was classified at the time he wrote it, especially because the operation had not even started yet, according to a US defense official and another source who was briefed on the operation.” The official told Bertrand, “It is safe to say that anybody in uniform would be court martialed for this.”
But Fox News is insisting that Hegseth’s messages were not classified. Responding after The Atlantic published transcripts of the Signal group chat, Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones dismissed concerns that the information was secret, saying, “It looks like Goldberg overpromised. There’s not war plans in it. At one point it talks about a target — it doesn't even say his name, doesn't say locations, coordinates. This is probably sensitive information, I'm not sure this is classified.” Later in the day, Hegseth repeated his former colleague's spin in a tweet.
