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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied a story from National Public Radio (NPR) on Monday that alleged the White House is looking to replace Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
In a post on X, Leavitt labeled the article from NPR as “FAKE NEWS” and “based on one anonymous source.” The NPR article came after the New York Times and CNN released reports using anonymous sources, claiming that Hegseth had shared details regarding military strikes on the Houthis with his wife, brother, and lawyer in a Signal chat.
“This @NPR story is total FAKE NEWS based on one anonymous source who clearly has no idea what they are talking about,” Leavitt wrote in her post. “As the President said this morning, he stands strongly behind @SecDef.”
Per NPR, a “source” claimed that “Hegseth used the Signal messaging app on his personal smartphone, detailing minute-by-minute classified information about airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen”:
The source said Hegseth used the Signal messaging app on his personal smartphone, detailing minute-by-minute classified information about airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. It happened at about the same time in March that Hegseth shared details with top White House officials in a different Signal chat group that accidentally included a journalist. That leak, hours before air strikes hit, could have endangered U.S. pilots if that information about the timing of strikes was intercepted by U.S. adversaries. Already the Houthis have twice shot down American predator drones.
Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell also responded to the claim from the New York Times and “all other Fake News that repeat their garbage,” stating it is “another day, another old story — back from the dead.”
“Another day, another old story — back from the dead,” Parnell said in a statement. “The Trump-hating media continues to be obsessed with destroying anyone committed to President Trump’s agenda. This time, the New York Times — and all other Fake New that repeat their garbage — are enthusiastically taking the grievances of disgruntled former employees as the sole sources for their article. They relied only on the words of people who were fired this week and appear to have a motive to sabotage the Secretary and the President’s agenda.”
The New York Times, citing “people familiar with the chat,” claimed that the second Signal chat “included his wife and about a dozen other people,” and that it was “created by Mr. Hegseth”:
Unlike the chat in which The Atlantic was mistakenly included, the newly revealed one was created by Mr. Hegseth. It included his wife and about a dozen other people from his personal and professional inner circle in January, before his confirmation as defense secretary, and was named “Defense | Team Huddle,” the people familiar with the chat said. He used his private phone, rather than his government one, to access the Signal chat.
In March, the Atlantic‘s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed in an article that he had accidentally been added to a Signal group chat by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz. The group, which was titled “Houthi PC small group,” included people such as Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Hegseth, and others.
Goldberg wrote in the article that several members in the Signal chat had a back and forth discussion days before military strikes on the Houthis in Yemen were launched.
In the article, Goldberg adds that on Saturday, March 15, Hegseth shared information that “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing”:
The only person to reply to the update from Hegseth was the person identified as the vice president. “I will says a prayer for victory,” Vance wrote. (Two other users subsequently added prayer emoji.)
According to the length Hegseth text, the first detonations in Yemen would be felt two hours hence, at 1:45 p.m. eastern time. So I waited in my car in a supermarket parking lot. If this Signal chat was real, I reasoned, Houthi targets would soon be bombed. At about 1:55, I checked X and searched Yemen. Explosions were then being heard across Sanaa, the capital city.
On Monday, President Donald Trump responded to reports about Hegseth’s second Signal chat, stating that he was “doing a great job,” according to the New York Times.
“He’s doing a great job — ask the Houthis how he’s doing,” Trump said.
