News

Pete Hegseth Fires Back At Atlantic Writer: ‘Deceitful And Highly Discredited’

Hegseth noted numerous examples of controversial reports that the author has published that have been discredited.

   DailyWire.com
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 04: U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth leaves the House chamber after U.S. President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump was expected to address Congress on his early achievements of his presidency and his upcoming legislative agenda.
Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth strongly pushed back on a report from a left-wing journalist on Monday who alleged that he was included in a Signal chat group where he claims that sensitive military attack plans were shared.

Hegseth made the remarks after landing in Hawaii for meetings about the United States military’s preparedness to confront threats in the Indo-Pacific region after The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg published a report suggesting that Trump administration officials shared classified materials on the encrypted messaging app about the United States’ attack plans on Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen.

“You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called ‘journalist’ who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again, to include the, I don’t know, the hoaxes of ‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’ or the ‘Fine People On Both Sides’ hoax, or the ‘Suckers And Losers’ hoax,” Hegseth said. “So this is the guy that peddles in garbage. This is what he does.”

“I would love to comment on the Houthi campaign because of the skill and courage of our troops. I’ve monitored it very closely from the beginning, and you see, we’ve been managing four years of deferred maintenance under the Trump administration,” he continued. “Our troops, our sailors, were getting shot at as targets. Our ships couldn’t sail through, and when they did shoot back, it was purely defensively, or at shacks in Yemen. President Trump said no more. We will re-establish deterrence. We will open freedom of navigation, and we will ultimately decimate the Houthis, which is exactly what we’re doing as we speak, from the beginning, overwhelmingly.”

When asked about how a journalist was “privy” to the information included in the Signal chat, Hegseth fired back, addressing Goldberg’s characterization of what was discussed.

“Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said.

Create a free account to join the conversation!

Already have an account?

Log in

Got a tip worth investigating?

Your information could be the missing piece to an important story. Submit your tip today and make a difference.

Submit Tip
Download Daily Wire Plus

Don't miss anything

Download our App

Stay up-to-date on the latest
news, podcasts, and more.

Download on the app storeGet it on Google Play
The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  Pete Hegseth Fires Back At Atlantic Writer: ‘Deceitful And Highly Discredited’