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(WASHINGTON) — In a pair of back-to-back rallies held over the phone on Thursday night, President Donald Trump praised the two Republican candidates in the upcoming special elections for Florida’s 6th and 1st Congressional districts, amid recent concerns among Republicans over whether their candidate in the 6th Congressional District, State Sen. Randy Fine, can keep the seat in Republican hands.
Fine has lagged behind his Democratic opponent, Josh Weil, in fundraising, and Republicans have expressed concerns about his campaign, although many still believe he will be able to hold the seat in the ruby-red district.
The special election in Florida’s 6th Congressional District, which is on the state’s eastern coast and includes the city of Daytona Beach, is being held on Tuesday, April 1, to fill the vacancy created by former Rep. Mike Waltz when he resigned to become Trump’s national security adviser.
The tele-rallies also came amid broader concerns among Republicans about maintaining their razor-thin majority in the U.S. House, and on the same day that Trump asked Rep. Elise Stefanik to withdraw her nomination to be United Nations ambassador, citing “a very tight Majority” in the U.S. House.
House Republicans currently hold a narrow majority with 218 Republicans to 213 Democrats. Speaker Mike Johnson has a two-vote cushion for his majority.
Fine, at the start of the telephone rally for him, emphatically praised Trump and said he would serve in Congress as one of the president’s strongest allies.
“Mr. President, I’m immensely grateful for your unwavering support, trust and confidence in me. I believe that God saved your life in Butler, Pennsylvania, so that you could save the world,” Fine said, referencing the July assassination attempt Trump survived. “And it will be one of the most profound honors of my life to be one of your foot soldiers as you make America great again.”
Trump praised Fine’s early endorsement of him during the 2024 election cycle, adding, “that’s why Randy will always have a very open door to the Oval Office. He will be there whenever I need him, and he wants to be there whenever we need him. He wants to be there for you.”
“I’ve gotten to know him under pressure situations, and he can react well under pressure. So go vote for Randy,” Trump said later.
Fine reiterated he would work to carry out Trump’s agenda in Congress.
“It’s not overstating things to say that your agenda is at stake in this election, and this district can’t let you down. Your agenda is on the ballot on April 1,” he said.
During the earlier telephone rally supporting the Republican candidate in the 1st Congressional District, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, Trump praised Patronis’ work in Florida and framed the special election as important for his own agenda.
That special election, which will determine who takes the seat vacated by now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz, has gotten less concern from Republicans.
“The 1st Congressional District is special, and I won it by a lot, and Jimmy is going to win it by a lot. And remember, you’re five days away from this all important special election taking place in your district on Tuesday, April 1, so April Fool’s Day. So it’s going to be the fool for the Democrat candidate, who happens to be terrible,” Trump said of Patronis’ Democratic opponent Gay Valimont, a gun violence prevention activist.
Praising Patronis, Trump said, “Jimmy’s done an outstanding job as the chief financial officer of the state of Florida, helping to guide your state to tremendous economic success. And now he wants to keep on fighting for Florida in Congress.”
Patronis, speaking after Trump, told listeners, “Look, if you’re not fired up to hearing the president right now, then you need to get your pulse checked with President Trump and the White House. A Republican majority in Congress — we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to transform this country.”
(WASHINGTON) — The law firm Jenner and Block filed suit against the Trump Administration Friday seeking to block an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last week that targeted its attorneys’ security clearances and essentially shuttered any interactions with the federal government.
“The Order threatens not only Jenner, but also its clients and the legal system itself,” the firm said Friday in its lawsuit. “Our Constitution, top to bottom, forbids attempts by the government to punish citizens and lawyers based on the clients they represent, the positions they advocate, the opinions they voice, and the people with whom they associate.”
Jenner and Block is now the second of five firms targeted by Trump to bring a legal challenge against what it describes as a blatantly “unconstitutional” executive order, following a successful effort by the law firm Perkins Coie to have a federal judge temporarily block a similar order that targeted it over its representation of then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in D.C. Friday, accuses the Trump Administration of engaging in a sweeping campaign to intimidate major law firms that either represented or once counted among its ranks individuals who he has labeled his political enemies.
“These orders send a clear message to the legal profession: Cease certain representations adverse to the government and renounce the Administration’s critics — or suffer the consequences,” the suit said. “The orders also attempt to pressure businesses and individuals to question or even abandon their associations with their chosen counsel, and to chill bringing legal challenges at all.”
The filing comes amid a crisis that has gripped other “Big Law” firms in Washington, as top attorneys debate whether to fight back, cut a deal or stay quiet wondering whether they will be singled out next.
On Thursday, Trump signed another executive order targeting WilmerHale — citing its hiring of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller and two of his top deputies, after they had investigated the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.
In a statement reacting to the order, a spokesperson for WilmerHale said they planned to pursue “all appropriate remedies to this unlawful order.”
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance are making their way to Greenland on Friday morning for a scaled back visit to the Pituffik Space Base.
The couple boarded Air Force Two shortly after 6 a.m. ET and were joined on the trip by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Energy Sec. Chris Wright and Sen. Mike Lee. They are expected to arrive at approximately 11:45 a.m. ET.
The trip was originally planned as a visit by the second lady to attend a dogsled race but that plan was scrapped after heavy criticism.
Vice President Vance is expected to deliver remarks and receive briefings at the Pituffik Space Base, according to a spokeswoman.
The visit comes as President Trump has repeatedly suggested that the U.S. should take over Greenland “one way or the another” for national security purposes and as he continues to emphasize Greenland’s importance as China and Russia ramp up activity in the Arctic.
Ahead of the Vance’s trip, Trump discussed how he views Greenland as vital to U.S. national security.
“We need Greenland for national security and international security. So we’ll, I think, we’ll go as far as we have to go,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “We need Greenland. And the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark. Denmark has to have us have Greenland. And, you know, we’ll see what happens. But if we don’t have Greenland, we can’t have great international security,” Trump said.
The president made overtures about buying Greenland in his first term in office.
In a press release announcing the visit, Vance said, “In the decades since neglect and inaction from Danish leaders and past US administrations have presented our adversaries with the opportunity to advance their own priorities in Greenland and the Arctic. President Trump is rightly changing course.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who is also making the trip, told Fox News on Thursday that Greenland has tried for years to interest U.S. mining companies to develop resources there because there’s not enough infrastructure to make mining economical.
“So, heck, maybe that is going to happen,” he said. “I think that is in the best interest of Greenland and Greenlanders and they have expressed that for years. If the United States can have the right cooperation, I think capital can flow there which would bring jobs and economic opportunity to Greenland and critical minerals and resources to the United States — a win for both sides.”
The idea of Greenland becoming part of the U.S. is opposed by many in Greenland and Denmark, of which Greenland is an autonomous territory.
Usha Vance was originally scheduled to make the trip to learn about Greenland’s cultural heritage and attend a national dogsled race before it was announced that the vice president, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright would join her. The trip was later scaled back to just a visit to the space base. The White House confirmed Thursday that Waltz will make the trip.
JD Vance and Waltz are at the center of the scandal over the purported conversation discussing the attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen over the commercially available Signal app that inadvertently included The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who reported details of the conversation on Monday.
Officials in Greenland and Denmark have pushed back against the visit.
Reuters reported that Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen called Trump’s statements an “escalation” in Trump’s rhetoric.
“These very powerful statements about a close ally do not suit the U.S. president,” Poulsen told reporters in Copenhagen on Thursday. “I need to clearly speak out against what I see as an escalation from the American side,” he said.
On Wednesday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a post on social media the U.S. is putting “unacceptable pressure” on Greenland and Denmark ahead of the unsolicited visit, adding that the two regions will “resist.”
The timing of the visit was criticized in both Greenland and Denmark as Greenland tries to put together a coalition government after parliamentary elections two weeks ago.
-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House has pulled Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be United Nations ambassador, President Donald Trump announced on Thursday.
“Elise will stay in Congress, rejoin the House Leadership Team, and continue to fight for our amazing American People,” Trump posted on his social media platform.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed on Thursday that about 10,000 full-time employees will soon lose their jobs, on top of the nearly 10,000 who have already left the agency in the last few months through buyout offers or early retirements.
That puts the total employees at around 62,000 people — down from 82,000 at the start of the Trump administration. The agency oversees the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — among other divisions.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a statement on Thursday.
“This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves. That’s the entire American public, because our goal is to Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy claimed the latest cuts will save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year. The cuts will reduce the number of regional offices — from 10 down to five. It will also combine the current 28 divisions at HHS into 15 divisions, including a new one focused on Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, to be named the Administration for a Healthy America.
“We’re going to eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments and agencies, while preserving their core functions by merging them into a new organization called the Administration for a Healthy America,” Kennedy said in a video out Thursday explaining the cuts.
Despite cutting nearly one-quarter of the agency, the department maintains that the restructuring won’t impact “critical services.”
The real-world impact of the newest round of cuts, however, remains to be seen. Already, cuts have hit top researchers at the National Institute of Health’s Alzheimer’s research center and disease detectives who identify new infectious diseases.
ABC News’ Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(FLORIDA) — Some Republicans are raising concerns ahead of a key special election in Florida on Tuesday in what appeared to be a safe U.S. House district for the party as Republican state Sen. Randy Fine vies for the chance to take the seat vacated by former Rep. Mike Waltz.
The special election in Florida’s 6th Congressional District, which is on the state’s eastern coast and includes the city of Daytona Beach, is being held on Tuesday, April 1, to fill the vacancy created by Waltz when he resigned to become President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.
Some concerns have been raised with Fine’s own party over his fundraising and campaigning as he has lagged behind Democratic candidate Josh Weil, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
(Weil’s campaign has spent over $8 million of its money, per the filings. Fine’s campaign also spent much of its money before his own donations last week.)
Another special election, in the state’s 1st District, will also occur on April 1 to fill the vacancy left by former Rep. Matt Gaetz when he resigned from Congress late last year.
While Republicans are favored to win both races, given that the districts were ruby-red in 2024, some have speculated that the margin between the Republican and Democratic candidates could be tighter than anticipated, given Trump’s voter disapproval ratings and Democrats’ success in some recent legislative district elections.
Those voicing concerns about the 6th District race include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who told reporters on Tuesday, “Regardless of the outcome in that, it’s going to be a way underperformance from when I won that district by in ’22 [as a candidate for governor] and what President Trump won in November.”
“They’re going to try to lay that at the feet of President Trump,” DeSantis added. “That is not a reflection of President Trump. It’s a reflection of the specific candidate running in that race. And President Trump, if he were on the ballot in this special election, he would win by 30 points, no question.”
DeSantis did say that he still expects a Republican candidate will be successful in the district. Still, DeSantis and Fine have clashed before, including when Fine switched his endorsement in the 2024 presidential primaries from DeSantis to Trump.
Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser, said on Monday on his podcast show that “Trump won that district by 30 points in November. … We have a candidate that I don’t think is winning. That’s an issue.”
ABC News reached out to Fine’s campaign for comment about the Republican concerns.
Fine, on social media, has continued to express optimism, writing on X on Tuesday night, “As I sit in my [state] Senate office for the last time, I want to thank the voters who have elected me seven times to represent them in Tallahassee. It’s been a profound honor, and I can’t wait to do it again.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, has not invested in the race but indicated it is not worried about a loss.
“Randy Fine is going to be a member of Congress. Everything else is just noise,” Mike Marinella, a spokesman for the NRCC, told ABC News.
Fine, who was elected to the Florida state Senate in 2024, previously served as a state House representative and worked beforehand as a casino executive. In the state legislature, Fine promoted bills on school choice, immigration, combating antisemitism and other issues.
He also sponsored a high-profile measure in 2022 that would eliminate some special districts in Florida, including one that encompasses Walt Disney World, amid a fight between the Florida government and The Walt Disney Company. (ABC News is owned by The Walt Disney Company, which also owns Walt Disney World.) A settlement was reached in March 2024.
The Florida special elections could affect the balance of power in the House of Representatives. As of Wednesday, less than a week out to the special election, Republicans have a razor-thin majority in the U.S. House, with 218 seats to Democrats’ 213 seats. (Four seats, including the two Florida seats, are vacant.)
Fine does have some momentum — for instance, he does have Trump’s strong endorsement.
Trump wrote in late March on his social media platform Truth Social, “A highly successful, Harvard educated businessman, and greatly respected State Legislator, Randy has been a tremendous Voice for MAGA.” The president also encouraged Republicans to vote early. The early voting period began on March 22.
Fine also has recent history pointing in favor of Republicans holding on to the district.
In the U.S. House general election in this district in 2024, Waltz received 67% of the vote, while Democratic candidate James Stockton received 33% of the vote. In this district in the presidential race, meanwhile, Trump received about 65% of the vote, while Vice President Kamala Harris received about 35% of the vote.
Both Democrats and Republicans have said special elections are not necessarily comparable to regular elections, given that voter turnout can be much lower during the special elections.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller and Soo Rin Kim contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Amid the fallout from The Atlantic’s Monday article reportedly detailing the Signal group chat discussing the U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen, Vice President JD Vance appearing to break with President Donald Trump is also getting attention.
Vance made a noteworthy statement in the chat, appearing to break with Trump and questioning whether the president recognized that a unilateral U.S. attack on the Houthis to keep international shipping lanes open was at odds with his tough talk about European nations paying their share of such efforts, according to an account by Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic editor-in-chief who said he was inadvertently included in the conversation.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” Vance wrote in the chat, according to Goldberg. “There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
On the day before the attack, according to The Atlantic’s reporting published on Monday, Vance participated in the chat as he told the group he was traveling to Michigan for an economic event.
“Team, I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan. But I think we are making a mistake,” Vance wrote in the chat, according to Goldberg. “3 percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message.”
Ultimately, he supported the attack, telling Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, “if you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again,” according to Goldberg’s account.
The White House has insisted the communications in the group chat were not war plans and criticized The Atlantic journalist who detailed the account.
“This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X on Wednesday.
William Martin, Vance’s communications director, said the vice president and Trump “are in complete agreement.”
“The Vice President’s first priority is always making sure that the President’s advisers are adequately briefing him on the substance of their internal deliberations. Vice President Vance unequivocally supports this administration’s foreign policy. The President and the Vice President have had subsequent conversations about this matter and are in complete agreement,” he said in a statement.
Asked if Vance and Trump had spoken between the time Vance raised his concerns with the group, as reported by The Atlantic, and he concurred with those advocating to go ahead with the strike, a spokesperson for Vance said the statement Martin provided to ABC News made it clear that they did, pointing out the line that they had “subsequent conversations about this matter.”
The comments from Vance are striking, given that he has been in lockstep, at least in public, with Trump, his top defender most of the time since being chosen as his running mate last July.
No situation depicted that more than Trump and Vance’s Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this month, where the three men got into a shouting match in front of the media over the prospects of a ceasefire deal to end the war in Ukraine. Vance berated Zelenskyy for not being thankful for the support the U.S. has provided Ukraine.
“Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Vance said to Zelenskyy. “Right now, you guys are going around enforcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
During the campaign cycle, where Vance was the policy attack dog for the president and previously said that Trump needs a vice president who wouldn’t “stab” him in the back, there was only a handful of times he deviated from Trump on policy, with the most notable incident occurring in an NBC interview during the presidential campaign when he said Trump would veto a national abortion ban. A few weeks later, Trump, during his debate with Kamala Harris hosted by ABC News, was asked about Vance’s comments on an abortion ban.
“Well, I didn’t discuss it with JD, in all fairness,” Trump said.
Since then, Vance has been more careful not to deviate publicly from the president’s policy position.
Following their victory in November, a source close to Vance told ABC News that the vice president was tasked to ensure that all of the priorities of the Trump administration move forward and would work on any of the issues Trump needs him to further.
In November, a source familiar with Vance and Trump’s relationship said Vance was focused on doing whatever was needed to support the president-elect and the administration.
(WASHINGTON) — The Congressional Budget Office warned on Wednesday that the government could run out of money to pay its bills as early as August or September if lawmakers fail to address the debt limit.
“The government’s ability to borrow using extraordinary measures will probably be exhausted in August or September 2025,” the nonpartisan CBO report predicted.
The CBO added that a precise projected X date is unclear because “the timing and amount of revenue collections and outlays over the intervening months could differ from the CBO’s projections.” The estimated projection provides Congress with a rough timeline to deal with the debt limit to avoid a default.
“If the government’s borrowing needs are significantly greater than CBO projects, the Treasury’s resources could be exhausted in late May or sometime in June, before tax payments due in mid-June are received or before additional extraordinary measures become available on June 30,” it said in the report.
If lawmakers do not raise or suspend the debt limit before all extraordinary measures are exhausted, the government could default on its debt — something that’s only happened a handful of times in U.S. history, though never in regard to the statutory debt limit.
“The Treasury has already reached the current debt limit of $36.1 trillion, so it has no room to borrow under its standard operating procedures,” according to the CBO report.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told congressional leaders that his department would provide an estimate of how long extraordinary measures will last during the first half of May — following tax season.
“I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States,” Bessent wrote in a March 14 letter to Congress.
The issue has been on Congress’ to-do list since last winter, when then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the debt limit would be met around President Donald Trump’s inauguration, which was on Jan. 20.
While Trump has called on House and Senate Republicans to abolish the debt limit, members of Congress are expected to include a provision in their budget reconciliation package to suspend the debt limit through the end of the Trump administration, though a plan is not finalized, including whether to offset any increase with spending cuts and reform.
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth/ Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is under scrutiny after The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg said he was inadvertently added to a Signal group chat that included top national security officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in which the officials discussed plans for a U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen.
Goldberg revealed the mishap in a piece for the magazine on Monday and told ABC News that he was apparently added to the chat by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.
Goldberg provided two screenshots in the magazine piece and did not provide details or quotes, only a description of the operational part of the Signal message chain.
Both the Trump administration and top officials involved have repeatedly denied that war plans or classified information were discussed, as Goldberg reported.
Below is a timeline spanning from the creation of the group chat to what has happened since.
March 11
In an interview with “ABC News Live” Monday evening, Goldberg told Linsey Davis he received a message request on the Signal app from White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, or someone “who’s purporting to be Mike Waltz” on March 11.
He said the invitation was “not an unusual thing in Washington.”
“I’m a journalist, I’ve met him in the past, so I accept it,” he told ABC News.
Goldberg said he accepted the request, with nothing occurring until several days later, when he was added to a “group of seemingly very high national security officials of the United States” including Vice President JD Vance, with Waltz apparently creating this chat.
“Mike Waltz puts this group together and says it’s a planning group for essentially upcoming action in Yemen,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg told ABC News he initially thought it was a hoax since it would be “completely absurd to me that the national security leadership of the United States would be meeting on a messaging app to discuss forthcoming military action, and that then they would also invite the editor of The Atlantic magazine to that conversation.”
March 14
Goldberg told ABC News a “long conversation” occurred between the group chat members on March 14, discussing “whether or not they should or shouldn’t take action in Yemen.”
The messages went back and forth with “a lot of resentment directed at European allies of the United States, which obviously enhanced the credibility of this chain,” Goldberg said.
He told ABC News at this point the members of the chat sounded like people he knew within the administration, but still was not sure whether or not it was a hoax.
March 15
Goldberg told ABC News he continued to track the incoming messages from the group chat, to see “who was trying to entrap me or trick me.” Then on March 15, he said it became “overwhelmingly clear” it was a legitimate group chat, he told ABC News.
At 11:44 a.m., he said he received a text in the chain from someone claiming to be Hegseth, or “somebody identified as Pete,” providing what Goldberg characterized as a war plan. The message included a “sequencing of events related to an upcoming attack on Yemen” and promised results by 1:45 p.m. Eastern time.
Goldberg told ABC News he was in his car and waiting with his phone to “see if this was a real thing.”
“Sure enough, around 1:50 [p.m.] Eastern time, I see that Yemen is under attack,” he said.
When the attacks seemed to be “going well,” Goldberg told ABC News that members of the chat began sending congratulatory messages along with fist, fire and American flag emojis.
“That was the day I realized this is possibly unbelievably the leaders of the United States discussing this on my messaging app,” Goldberg told ABC News. “My reaction was, I think I’ve discovered a massive security breach in the United States national security system.”
Goldberg told ABC News he removed himself from the group chat once the operation was completed.
“I watched this Yemen operation go from beginning to apparent end, and that was enough for me to learn that there’s something wrong in the system here that would allow this information to come so dangerously close to the open wild,” Goldberg said.
March 16
Waltz appeared on ABC’s “This Week” the day after the strikes on Yemen and said the U.S. airstrikes “took out” multiple leaders of the Iranian-backed Houthis, which he said differed from the Biden administration’s launches against the group.
“These were not kind of pinprick, back and forth — what ultimately proved to be feckless attacks,” Waltz said. “This was an overwhelming response that actually targeted Houthi leaders and took them out. And the difference here is, one, going after the Houthi leadership, and two, holding Iran responsible.”
March 24
Goldberg published a story in The Atlantic revealing the mishap, in a piece titled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.”
Shortly after the story’s publication on Monday afternoon, White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes shared with ABC News the statement he provided to The Atlantic confirming the authenticity of the Signal group chat.
“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. The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security,” Hughes said in a statement.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Hegseth denied he sent war plans in the chat.
“I’ve heard how it was characterized. Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth told reporters in Honolulu while on a layover on his trip to Asia.
Hegseth called Goldberg a “deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”
“This is the guy that pedals in garbage. This is what he does,” Hegseth said about Goldberg.
During an event at the White House on Monday, President Donald Trump was asked about Goldberg’s article. “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic,” he said.
Top Democrats including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries voiced outrage at the administration after this mishap.
“It is yet another unprecedented example that our nation is increasingly more dangerous because of the elevation of reckless and mediocre individuals, including the Secretary of Defense,” Jeffries said in a statement on Monday.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who faced scrutiny over her alleged use of a private email server while at the State Department, shared her reaction to the Signal group chat on X: “You have got to be kidding me.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also criticized this apparent breach of military intelligence, urging Senate Republicans to work with Democrats in a “full investigation” to look into how this incident occurred.
“If you were up in arms over unsecure emails years ago, you should certainly be outraged by this amateurish behavior,” Schumer said on the Senate floor, referencing the scandal over Clinton’s emails.
March 25
On Tuesday morning, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Goldberg is “well-known for his sensationalist spin” and emphasized that “no ‘war plans’ were discussed.”
“As the National Security Council stated, the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread. Thanks to the strong and decisive leadership of President Trump, and everyone in the group, the Houthi strikes were successful and effective. Terrorists were killed and that’s what matters most to President Trump,” Leavitt shared on X.
Trump told NBC News he remains confident in Waltz even after the use of an unsecured group chat.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump told NBC correspondent Garrett Haake.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were grilled by Democratic Sen. Mark Warner on Tuesday regarding the mishap. Both officials said while testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence there was no classified information on the chain.
Ratcliffe said he believed the “national security adviser intended this to be as it should have been, 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.”
Speaker Mike Johnson continued to downplay the mishap but admitted the breach was a “serious” mistake on Tuesday.
“Look, they have acknowledged that there is an error, and they are correcting it. And I would’ve asked the same thing of the Biden administration,” Johnson said during a news conference Tuesday morning.
During a White House meeting with ambassadors on Tuesday afternoon, Trump said this incident is “just something that can happen” and that there was “no classified information” in the group chat.
He added that Signal is “not a perfect technology.”
“Sometimes somebody can get onto those things,” Trump said. “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.”
Waltz said the White House’s tech and legal teams are looking into the mishap.
“No one in your national security team would ever put anyone in danger,” Waltz said.
He also claimed to have never met Goldberg.
“We are looking into him, reviewing how the heck he got into this room,” Waltz said.
A spokesperson for The Atlantic released a statement on Tuesday night following the comments from Trump and his aides.
“Attempts to disparage and discredit The Atlantic, our editor and our reporting follow an obvious playbook by elected officials and other in power who are hostile to journalists and the First Amendment rights of all Americans,” the magazine said.
The statement went on to say that “any responsible national security expert would consider the information contained in this Signal chat to be of the greatest sensitivity, and would agree that this information should never be shared on non-government messaging apps.”
March 26
Schumer and other top Senate Democrats on national security committees wrote a letter to Trump seeking more information about the mishap, requesting a “complete and unredacted” transcript of the Signal group chat for the appropriate committees to review in a secure setting.
“We write to you with extreme alarm about the astonishingly poor judgment shown by your Cabinet and national security advisors,” the Senators wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by ABC News. “You have long advocated for accountability and transparency in the government, particularly as it relates to the handling of classified information, national security and the safety of American servicemembers. As such, it is imperative that you address this breach with the seriousness and diligence that it demands.”
The Atlantic on Wednesday published a new article detailing purported information about recent American strikes in Yemen it says was accidentally shared in the Signal group chat.
Shortly after the article was published, Leavitt said in a post on X “these were NOT ‘war plans.'”
“This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin,” Leavitt said.
ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Anne Flaherty, Luis Martinez, Isabella Murray, Allison Pecorin, Lauren Peller, Michelle Stoddart, Selina Wang and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld government regulation of self-assemble firearm kits that produce untraceable weapons known as “ghost guns.”
The 7-2 decision came from Justice Neil Gorsuch. Justices Thomas Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.
“The Gun Control Act embraces, and thus permits ATF to regulate, some weapon parts kits and unfinished frames or receivers, including those we have discussed. Because the court of appeals held otherwise, its judgment is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion,” Gorsuch wrote.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
