Top Congressional Democrats are demanding answers after a major security blunder by members of President Donald Trump’s administration, who inadvertently included journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, in an unsecured group chat discussing sensitive military operations.
According to Goldberg, the Signal app thread—which is not approved for classified communication—was initiated by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others. Goldberg was mistakenly added to the chat, gaining access to what Senate Democrats describe as highly classified discussions.
On the Senate floor Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer condemned the incident as a shocking lapse in national security.
“Mr. President, this is one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time,” Schumer said.
“What we have here are senior U.S. leaders—including the Vice President and Secretary of Defense—exchanging classified war plans on an unsecured app.”
Schumer emphasized the gravity of including a private citizen in such a discussion, warning the situation could have jeopardized American lives and compromised national defense strategies.
“This kind of carelessness is how people get killed. It’s how our enemies take advantage of us. It’s how our national security falls into danger,” he said.
Schumer called on Senate Majority Whip John Thune and other Republicans to support a bipartisan investigation into the breach, demanding a full accounting of how the error occurred, what information was exposed, and how to prevent similar lapses in the future.
“Every single senator—Republican, Democrat, and Independent—must demand accountability,” he said. “If a lower-level government employee had shared classified material in this way, they’d face serious consequences.”
Schumer also took aim at Republican lawmakers, challenging them to show the same outrage they expressed during the 2016 controversy involving Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
“If you were up in arms over unsecured emails years ago, you should certainly be outraged by this amateurish behavior,” he said.
As of Monday evening, the White House had not commented on the incident, and it remains unclear whether any officials involved in the Signal thread will face disciplinary action.
The episode has intensified scrutiny on the Trump administration’s handling of classified information and its adherence—or lack thereof—to secure communication protocols in military and foreign affairs.
