House Democratic leader calls for Hegseth's resignation in wake of war plans leak

The Democratic minority leader in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, on Tuesday formally called for the impeachment of Defense Secretary , Pete Hegseth for using a group chat on the social networking site Signal to discuss various war plans with other members of the government, not realizing that they had included by mistake the editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. "His behavior shocks the conscience, risked American lives, and likely violated the law. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should be fired immediately," Jeffries wrote in a letter addressed to U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Democratic leader's letter joins numerous calls from other senators and congressmen from his own party who also called for the resignation of several officials involved in the leak of war plans. One of these was Senator Mark Warner, who explained that both Hegseth and the national security advisor to the Trump Administration, Mike Waltz, should resign as soon as possible. However, leading Republican senators and congressmen have expressed their support for the government officials who were part of the chat. One of them was House Speaker Mike Johnson, who stated that what happened in the Signal group was nothing more than a "mistake" that he was confident would not happen again.

Details of a scandal

Last Monday, the editor of The Atlantic wrote in an article that he had been surprisingly added to this Signal group, in which both Hegseth and other members of the Administration, including Vice President JD Vance, discussed an impending military operation in Yemen against terrorists houthis. Likewise, Goldberg explained that he was included in the group by Waltz and added that, in total, there were 18 Republican administration officials who were in the group. The media director detailed that, in addition to those already mentioned, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were also in the chat.

Elsewhere in his article, Goldberg revealed that the chat was called "Houthi PC Small Group," noting that, less than 24 hours after being included in the group, Hegseth posted in the chat sensitive information with numerous operational details of attacks planned to be executed against the terrorist group, which has wreaked havoc in the Red Sea and is supported by the Iranian regime. The journalist added that he would not disclose details about what was published in that chat.