Waltz's InfoSec stumble gives floundering Democrats a line of attack

Democrats have struggled to mount a coherent defense against the Trump administration’s rapid-fire upending of D.C. norms, but "Signalgate" has given them a sacrifice in the form of national security advisor Mike Waltz. The knives are out for him.

“I think what you're seeing are the opponents of Donald Trump and his administration just desperately grasping at straws to try to bring them down,” former deputy national security advisor Victoria Coates said Tuesday on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show. “I'm old enough to remember when they went after General Flynn in the first 30 days of the first Trump term. It was incredibly disruptive.” 

“They are going after this non-story to try to create a disruption again, in the National Security Council,” she added. “And so, you know, this is a process error… I'm not saying I condone the Signal thing, but I've got to say, if you get results like this, they can chat all they want, because we've actually taken a step towards peace.”

This week, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg published a report titled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans” about how he had been accidentally added to a group chat on Signal with key members of the Trump administration created to coordinate recent strikes on the Yemen-based Houthis. That report was widely circulated and became the spark igniting the issue. As of publication, a Google search for the words "Jeffrey Goldberg," "signal" and "war" yielded 122,000 results. 

Known as Ansarallah, the Houthi rebel group is one of three players in the ongoing Yemeni Civil War and has targeted commercial shipping in the Red Sea amid the Israel-Hamas conflict. Goldberg revealed that the chat included the timing of strikes as well as concerns from Cabinet officials that the public would not respond positively to the operation.

Dems out for blood

High-profile Democrats have seized on the scandal, demanding that both Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth resign. “The arrogance and incompetence of the Trump administration is stunning,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. “Democrats will grill several national security officials under oath this week. And expose the harm they have done to the American people.”

“Wait. Pete Hegseth hasn’t resigned yet?” quipped Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. Swalwell himself was removed from the Intelligence Community after the exposé of his romantic relationship with an alleged Chinese spy. “When the stakes are this high, incompetence is not an option. Pete Hegseth should resign. Mike Waltz should resign,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said. Similar statements were made by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Sen. Peter Welch, I-Maine.

GOP not all happy with Waltz though

Democrats aren’t the only ones who are livid with Waltz. Federalist CEO Sean Davis dismissed calls for Hegseth’s resignation, but insisted the blame fell solely on Waltz. “‘Hegseth should’ve known.’ What nonsense,” he posted. “If you can’t trust the president’s top national security adviser to initiate a conversation without secretly including dishonest and corrupt hoax-peddling journos, that is a problem that begins and ends with the national security adviser.”

Inside the administration, moreover, several unnamed sources vented their frustrations to Politico. “People are mad that Waltz didn’t just admit a mistake and move on,” a senior administration official told the outlet.

“Own it, fire Waltz, move on,” a person close to the White House told the outlet.

Waltz: "I take full responsibility"

Waltz appeared on television to take responsibility for the leak, though he was unable to explain how it had occurred and promised an eventual conclusion.

“We’re gonna get to the bottom of it,” Waltz told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham. “I just talked to Elon [Musk] on the way here. “We’ve got the best technical minds looking at how this happened. But I can tell for 100% I don’t know this guy. I know him by his horrible reputation and he is really the bottom scum of journalists.” 

He further suggested that he had Goldberg’s number on someone else’s contact, though Ingraham questioned why Waltz would have his number at all if the pair never spoke.

Trump himself told NBC News that “[i]t was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there.”

Among the screenshots Goldberg released was one showing a message within Signal telling him that Waltz — or someone with access to his account — had created the group and/or added him to it. The messages also showed JD Vance expressing dissatisfaction with the Europeans and their contributions to global security.

“A staffer wasn’t responsible,” Waltz said. “I take full responsibility. I built the group. My job is to make sure everything is coordinated.”

What did Goldberg actually get?

The White House has repeatedly insisted that there was no classified information in the chat and that Goldberg had sensationalized the content. “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,” Waltz posted on X.

When Goldberg finally published the contents of the chat, The Atlantic re-labelled them as “attack plans” rather than “war plans.”

“The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT ‘war plans’” wrote press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin.”

“It’s very clear Goldberg oversold what he had,” Vance said.

Skepticism from all sides

Some journalists have questioned the administration’s claims about the low sensitivity of the materials. Among the most contentious is a message from Hegseth that included a schedule of strikes, complete with time stamps and the relevant vehicles and ordinances, for the Houthi attack.

“I'm not going to pretend to care whether the US Govt is ably hiding its secrets — a journalist's job is to unearth them, not help hide them,” posted independent journalist Glenn Greenwald. “[B]ut if Goldberg had published all of this before Yemen bombing began, would the Trump WH have said: ‘no problem; it's not classified?’”

“The texts literally included the methods,” podcast host Ben Rhodes responded to Waltz.

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, moreover, reported on an unnamed defense official suggesting the material in Hegseth’s message was, in fact, classified when he wrote it.

“We don’t provide that level of information on unclassified systems, in order to protect the lives and safety of the service members carrying out these strikes,” the defense official purportedly said. “If we did, it would be wholly irresponsible. My most junior analysts know not to do this.”