Nearly two weeks after a reporter was erroneously looped into a Signal messaging chat between top national security officials, the White House said it is “making changes” to address the issue.
“We have never denied that this was a mistake, and the national security adviser took responsibility for that and we have said we are making changes,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday morning. “We are looking into the matter to ensure it can never happen again.”
On Monday, The Atlantic broke the news of how its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, had mistakenly been included on a text thread between a number of cabinet members and administration higher-ups in the encrypted Signal messaging app.
In the chat, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listed times of planned attacks against the Yemeni rebel group the Houthis, as well as some of the weapons involved.
House and Senate committees have demanded answers from FBI Director Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others at a hearing this week over the mishap, and critics have called the mishap “egregious,” “rank incompetence” and “a massive national security breach,” among other things.
The press has repeatedly asked the administration what the consequences will be for the mistake, and the administration has responded by saying that the appropriate people have taken responsibility and it’s looking into how it could have happened.
Leavitt on Thursday insisted the White House has been very transparent on the issue and redirected, saying the president has appointed very qualified men and women to protect Americans.
“But of course, the president has put together a team — look at the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who was voted in by the United States Senate, putting our war fighters first, making the world a safer place for the American people and for all people, and we’re going to stay focused on that,” Leavitt said.
Thursday morning, federal law enforcement officers captured what Trump has described as a “major leader” of the MS-13 gang. Leavitt highlighted that accomplishment.
“I think the arrest of an MS 13 gang leader this morning speaks volumes about the confidence of the president and his team,” she said.
