House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is calling for Congress to investigate top Trump administration officials in the wake of a bombshell revelation that The Atlantic’s top editor was included in a group chat discussion detailing the Pentagon’s plans to strike Yemen.
Jeffries said the details of the breach, outlined by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg on Monday, reveal a “reckless” administration — one stocked with an “unqualified” Cabinet — that poses a threat to national security in the name of defending it.
Congress, he said, has a role in getting to the bottom of the incident.
“There should absolutely be a congressional investigation so that we can understand what happened, why did it happen, and how do we prevent this type of national security breach from ever happening again,” Jeffries told reporters Monday in the Capitol, shortly after The Atlantic piece was published.
“This is reckless, irresponsible and dangerous.”
Jeffries did not mention any of the top officials involved in the breach. But he went after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth without naming him, characterizing the secretary as “the most unqualified person ever to lead the Pentagon in American history.” And he accused President Trump of prioritizing loyalty over experience and talent.
“We were promised that Donald Trump was going to hire the very best. It’s all phony,” Jeffries charged.
“This whole Trump administration is filled with lackeys and incompetent cronies.”
The Atlantic’s bombshell report featured allegations that Goldberg, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, had received an invitation to join a group chat on Signal from someone identifying themselves as Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser. Signal is an encrypted app, but it’s not a platform typically used by top government officials to discuss topics as sensitive as military plans, and Goldberg said he was initially skeptical of the legitimacy of the messages.
As the discussion evolved, however, he said it became more clear that he was, indeed, a part of a highly confidential discussion about the Pentagon’s plans for missile strikes against Houthi forces in Yemen. The chat also appeared to feature Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Hegseth, who sent the group details — including weapons systems and targets — for impending strikes on Yemen on March 15.
The National Security Council (NSC) verified the authenticity of the chat on Monday afternoon and said it was looking into the incident.
“We are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” said NSC spokesperson Brian Hughes. “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.”
Democrats aren’t convinced, and a number of lawmakers in both chambers — including those sitting on the Armed Services and Intelligence committees — wasted little time on Monday accusing the administration of gross negligence and calling for Congress to investigate.
“Only one word for this: FUBAR,” Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), an Army veteran, posted on the social platform X. “If House Republicans won’t hold a hearing on how this happened IMMEDIATELY, I’ll do it my damn self.”
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), an Air Force veteran, urged congressional leaders to step up mandatory trainings on the handling of classified information across the federal government.
And Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, suggested the officials in question had broken the law. He intends to make the breach a leading topic at the panel’s “worldwide threats” briefing with top administration officials on Wednesday.
“If true, these actions are a brazen violation of laws and regulations that exist to protect national security, including the safety of Americans serving in harm’s way,” Himes said in a statement.
“These individuals know the calamitous risks of transmitting classified information across unclassified systems, and they also know that if a lower ranking official under their command did what is described here, they would likely lose their clearance and be subject to criminal investigation.”
Jeffries added another layer of criticism to the mounting pile, bashing the administration for gutting efforts to promote diversity across federal agencies. The women and minorities Trump has targeted, he charged, are much more qualified than the top officials — most of them white men — the president has installed.
“You’ve put these people in charge? In a very dangerous world? And then you want to attack communities of color? Attack women? And attack others who are actually very qualified?” Jeffries said.
“These people are incredibly unqualified, irresponsible, and they’re jeopardizing America’s national security.”
