Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly at a town hall discussing Republican-proposed Medicaid cuts at the Neighborhood Access to Health Cholla Health Center on Monday, March 17, 2025, in Scottsdale. (Photo by Alexis Heichman/Cronkite News)
WASHINGTON – Arizona’s senators called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign on Wednesday, accusing him of egregious carelessness for sharing plans of an impending attack in a chat group that included a journalist.
“This is what happens when you put unqualified people in important jobs where lives are on the line,” Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly said in a statement.
Both he and Sen. Ruben Gallego, also a Democrat, opposed Hegseth’s confirmation. Both are military combat veterans.
Gallego posted a video on X calling Hegseth a “hypocrite” for brushing off the use of the Signal app to discuss plans for the March 15 airstrike on the Houthi terrorist group in Yemen, given his fierce criticism of Hillary Clinton for using a private email server while secretary of state.
“Pete should resign,” he posted.
The White House has defended Hegseth, who posted detailed operations plans in the chat, and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, who had inadvertently added The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to the group.
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President Donald Trump said “there is no perfect technology” for chats and told reporters that Waltz is “doing his best” on national security.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich labeled The Atlantic’s reporting a “hoax,” even after the National Security Council verified the authenticity of the conversation.
The Atlantic initially withheld certain details of the chat but on Wednesday, after Trump and other top officials insisted that nothing in it was classified, the magazine issued a complete transcript.
Gallego, a former Marine, has hammered the Trump national security team in cable news appearances since The Atlantic reported Monday that Goldberg was looped into a chat group named “Houthi PC small group” that included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
The Signal app offers commercial-level encryption but is not approved for sharing classified information. The U.S. government discourages the use of the app at all on its phones.
One member of the chat group, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, was in Russia when he was added to the group.
“Pete Hegseth should resign or be fired, and the Republican majority in Congress must launch a thorough investigation so we can hold them accountable,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Phoenix, said in a statement that also called for Waltz’s resignation.
Waltz dug in on Wednesday after The Atlantic released the full version of the chat:
“No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS. Foreign partners had already been notified that strikes were imminent. BOTTOM LINE: President Trump is protecting America and our interests,” he posted on X.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, questions CIA director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard about the inclusion of The Atlantic’s top editor in a Signal group chat about an impending attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen, during a Senate hearing March 25, 2025 (Screen grab from C-SPAN)
At a House hearing on Wednesday, Gabbard – who oversees the nation’s other 17 intelligence agencies – conceded that “it was a mistake that the reporter was inadvertently added.”
Testifying at a Senate hearing on Tuesday, she and Ratcliffe downplayed the use of Signal.
“The information was not classified,” Gabbard testified under questioning by Kelly.
Kelly pressed both officials over a Defense Department ban on discussing sensitive – but not necessarily classified – information on unauthorized devices. Both said they were unaware of that policy.
“Of what’s been disclosed publicly of the Signal chain, would either of you feel that that would be approved for public release?” Kelly asked.
Gabbard said she couldn’t answer his question. Ratcliffe responded that “I wouldn’t approve the release of classified information.”
Both Arizona senators voted to confirm Ratcliffe, and both opposed both Hegseth, who caught Trump’s attention as a Fox News commentator, and Gabbard, a former Democrat whose defense of Syria’s strongman leader generated controversy.
“Her track record of hostility towards our intelligence community is far too long to dismiss,” Kelly said ahead of her Feb. 12 confirmation.
The Houthis said at least 32 people were killed in the March 15 attacks. Waltz and others said the attack killed members of the group’s leadership, including the head of its missile program. The rebel group has disrupted shipping in the Red Sea, a critical trade route leading to the Suez Canal.
Trump aides have emphasized the success of the attack.
