The Olympian | WA Democrats in Congress demand Trump’s defense secretary resign amid Signal scandal
By: Simone Carter
Multiple Washington Democratic Congress members are calling on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to resign following the leak of a Signal chat about plans for airstrikes in Yemen.
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, had reportedly been mistakenly included in the group conversation, which featured messages among top officials from the administration of President Donald Trump.
Goldberg on Wednesday published the transcript of the texts, which included Hegseth, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, Vice President JD Vance and others.
Hegseth sent notes about weapons systems and timing prior to strikes on Houthi rebels, Axios reports. One such purported text from the defense secretary? “THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP.”
Some Democratic U.S. lawmakers, including at least five from Washington state, have since blasted the gaffe. But Hegseth has rejected the premise that war plans or classified information had been brought up in the chat; rather, he said, the messages served as a general team update.
U.S. Rep. Marilyn Strickland, a Washington Democrat whose district covers parts of Pierce and Thurston counties, slammed Hegseth in a post on X (formerly Twitter), calling him “unqualified from the start.”
“He is a national security risk and he should be fired immediately,” wrote Strickland, who’s a member of the U.S. House Committee on Armed Services.
Strickland previously condemned Hegseth ahead of his confirmation, citing sexual-assault claims made against the former Fox News personality and his alleged “drinking problem.” In December she decried Hegseth’s nomination as “an affront to the American people.”
Reached for comment Wednesday, the White House pointed McClatchy to a March 26 briefing from press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
In response to a reporter’s question about Signal, Leavitt said that Trump has placed great trust in his administration’s national security team. She also pointed out that Signal is an approved encrypted app, one that the CIA and departments of defense and state have loaded onto government phones.
Leavitt added that White House counsel’s office is looking into how the original mistake occurred.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, who represents the central Puget Sound region and parts of King County, has also called on Hegseth to resign. As the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, Smith classified Hegseth’s actions as a “level of incompetence that should not be tolerated” at the U.S. Department of Defense.
“Anybody working at the Defense Department who shared this type of information should be fired,” Smith continued in a video posted to X. “And certainly the secretary of defense should be held to that same standard.”
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, whose district includes much of Seattle and the surrounding areas, demanded the resignation of everyone in the Signal chain.
“This level of incompetence is clearly extensive throughout Trump’s cabinet and goes all the way to the top,” she continued via X. “This also begs the question, why was any of this being discussed on a Signal chain?”
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a fierce Trump critic, wrote on X that Hegseth put the lives of service members at risk.
“Pete Hegseth must RESIGN. Michael Waltz must RESIGN,” she added. “They cannot be trusted to keep America safe.”
Washington U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen — a Democrat whose district spans Skagit, Whatcom, San Juan and Island counties — posted on the social media app Bluesky: “Secretary Hegseth endangered soldiers’ lives with his carelessness and incompetence. He must resign or be fired immediately.”