Republican senators are standing behind Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth amid calls for his resignation over the Signal chat leak, telling Fox News Digital that calls for him to be fired are ‘hot garbage.’
Trump administration national security officials are facing a barrage of negative media coverage this week after Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was included in a group chat on Signal, an encrypted messaging app, about a strike against the Houthis in Yemen. Goldberg later went on to publish the messages on Wednesday.
Hegseth has doubled down that no war plans or classified information were shared during the Signal group chat of Trump administration officials about possible strikes on Houthi targets, which was mistakenly shared with a journalist.
Amid Goldberg’s publication of the messages, Democrats have been calling for Hegseth and other officials to resign.
But GOP senators are defending Hegseth.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital, ‘Defense Secretary Hegseth helped spearhead the successful strikes we saw against the Houthis to protect shipping lanes and keep Americans safe.’
‘That’s good policy — and a win for the Trump administration,’ Hawley said. ‘The Democrats are just trying to change the subject and trash Hegseth because Trump is on a roll.’
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., also defended Hegseth, telling Fox News Digital that he is ‘a decorated war hero who understands the needs of the warfighter.’
‘In a matter of weeks, he’s taken bold action alongside President Trump to restore lethality, merit and peace through strength. Recruitment numbers show this administration is inspiring young Americans to serve their country in uniform,’ Mullin said. ‘The Defense Department has achieved great success under Pete’s leadership, and anyone saying otherwise isn’t paying attention.’
And Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said that the calls for his resignation — especially after the successful strikes — are ‘amusing.’
‘In the wake of successful strikes against Houthi terrorists, it’s amusing to see two political camps attack the Secretary of Defense: radical progressives who are angry that he’s getting rid of woke DEI ideology and focusing on lethality, and armchair generals who are mad that he wants to keep America out of unnecessary foreign wars,’ Lee told Fox News Digital.
And some senators blasted the press, with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, saying that the ‘woke media has shown their true colors this week.’
‘For the past four years, we had a vegetable President who sat on his hands while the Houthis attacked the U.S. Navy more than 170 times while choking off a major trade route with devastating effects on our economy,’ Tuberville told Fox News Digital. ‘But thanks to the leadership of President Trump, Secretary Hegseth, and the entire national security team, we are protecting our ships and well on our way to restoring full freedom of navigation.’
Again, Tuberville said that ‘rather than celebrating the success of this operation, the same left-wing media who largely downplayed the botched Afghanistan withdrawal under Biden that cost 13 Americans their lives is working around the clock to try to get Secretary Hegseth pushed out.’
‘I’ve gotten to know Secretary Hegseth well over the past few months. Not only is he a patriot who bravely served two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he is doing a great job as the Secretary of Defense,’ he continued. ‘Under his leadership, the Pentagon is focused once again on lethality, not woke politics. Secretary Hegseth has my 100% support, and any suggestion that he should be fired is hot garbage.’
And Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, doubled down, also saying that Hegseth has proven that ‘he is exactly the right person to cut red tape at the Pentagon, put an end to forever wars abroad and improve morale among our brave warfighters.’
Moreno told Fox News Digital that he is ‘proud to stand with him in the face of disgusting attacks from Democrats and their allies in the liberal media.’
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., also came to Hegseth’s defense, saying he is ‘doing a great job, and is doing exactly what the American people elected President Trump to do: prioritize America’s core national interests in foreign policy decisions, strip woke programs and divisive DEI out of our military, and work to return our military’s focus to lethality and preparedness.’
And Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital that the ‘historic spike in military recruitment is no accident. America is safer. Our adversaries are weaker. And terrorists are dead. With Secretary Hegseth, America is winning.’
‘I’m confident Secretary Hegseth will continue to put our warfighters in the best position and return the Pentagon’s focus to our force’s lethality, providing a credible deterrent against our adversaries,’ Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., told Fox News Digital. ‘I remain steadfastly committed to advancing President Trump’s doctrine of peace through strength, which includes ensuring his national security team has the support needed to enact the President’s agenda.’
Hegseth has defended himself this week, saying, ‘Nobody’s texting war plans.’
‘I noticed this morning out came something that doesn’t look like war plans. And as a matter of fact, they even changed the title to attack plans because they know it’s not war plans,’ he explained Wednesday.
‘There’s no units, no locations, no routes, no flight paths, no sources, no methods, no classified information,’ he added, saying no sensitive information was divulged in the chat.
Hegseth said he was keeping President Donald Trump’s national security team informed in real time.
‘My job, as I said, on top of that, everybody’s seen it now,’ Hegseth said. The ‘team update is to provide updates in real time — general updates in real time. Keep everybody informed. That’s what I did. That’s my job.’
The fallout comes as Goldberg said he received a request to join the group chat on the encrypted messaging service Signal on March 11 from what appeared to be National Security Advisor Michael Waltz. Goldberg released screenshots of some of the message exchanges he observed.
He reported that officials had been discussing ‘war plans’ but didn’t publish some of the highly sensitive information he saw, including precise information about weapons packages, targets and timing, due to potential threats to national security and military operations.
Earlier in the day, Hegseth scolded Goldberg in a post on X, who he said has never ‘seen a war plan.’
‘So, let’s me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information,’ he wrote. ‘Those are some really s—– war plans.’
‘This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an ‘attack plan’ (as he now calls it). Not even close,’ he added.
Fox News’ Landon Mion, Louis Casiano and Liz Friden contributed to this report.