The Trump administration faced a brutal 48 hours of trying to fight back against The Atlantic and its editor Jeffrey Goldberg ever since he published a story revealing that the president’s national security team texted its plans to attack Houthis in Yemen. Then Goldberg and the magazine pulled the trigger and published the entire chat that took place over Signal.
The administration reverted to its defensive crouch, seeking to pick a fight with the press, the playing field where it feels most comfortable — rather than addressing the fact that officials held a highly sensitive security discussion in a Signal chat.
On Capitol Hill, it created yet another headache for Republicans, who had to either play coy or make some tacit admissions that officials made mistakes.
Senator Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Independent on Tuesday that he wanted an “accurate transcript” of the messages. On Wednesday, after publication of the conversations, he told reporters he would only take questions one time, and said that he and Jack Reed, the top Democrat on Armed Services, would send a letter to the administration asking it to expedite an inspector’s general report.
“I don't disparage Mr. Goldberg, but I think it's incumbent on us to verify that those were actually the words and sentences,” he told The Independent.
The only problem? The Trump administration sacked the inspector general for the Pentagon, as well as for numerous other government agencies. Reed insisted that the Pentagon still has an acting inspector general.
“It might be either permanent or acting, but that job is there,” he told The Independent. Reed acknowledged that the Signal chat situation confirmed his worst fears about Defense Secretary Hegseth during his confirmation hearing.
“I think it adds further weight to my observation at the hearing process,” he said.
The Rhode Island Democrat told his local newspaper during Hegseth’s confirmation process that he “lacks the requisite character, competence and commitment to do this job ... he’s the least qualified nominee for secretary of defense in modern history.”
Wicker, a conventional hawkish Republican, staked much of his credibility to get Hegseth across the finish line. But other Republicans attempted to play coy.
“The test?” Senator Todd Young, a retired Marine intelligence officer, asked twice in response to a question from The Independent about the situation before saying he had not read the text messages. The Indiana Republican, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, had been a swing vote to confirm Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, despite his reservations about both her and Trump.
The chat security breach puts Republicans up for re-election in a difficult position. Earlier in the day, Senator John Cornyn of Texas announced he would run for re-election, billing himself as an ally of Trump’s.
When asked if he had seen the texts, he said he had not.
He dodged when asked if he would read them. “Umm, maybe,” he told The Independent with a chuckle. The bigger issue, Cornyn said, was figuring out who uses Signal and for what purposes.
“ I think, you know, legitimate questions have been raised about the sensitivity of the information that they should be using government systems, as opposed to a private app,” he told The Independent. Signal is available to the public.
Cornyn, who faces a potential challenge from pro-Trump embattled attorney general Ken Paxton, has taken to posting a photo of himself on X reading the president’s book The Art of the Deal. Cornyn needs to get through a primary after he failed to become majority leader last year and that means he needs to play up his close relationship with MAGA.
Likewise, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he had not read the texts, but knew they were released.
“I understand that some are saying there may have been classified information in there. If that’s the case that's a problem,” he told The Independent.
Tillis is perhaps the most endangered Republican incumbent in the 2026 midterms, hailing from a state that always has tight elections. He risked much of his credibility when he cast the deciding vote to allow Vice President JD Vance to break the tie to confirm Hegseth as Defense secretary.
But he faces a double-pronged challenge with a potential primary opponent from his right flank and former Democratic governor Roy Cooper running against him in the general election.
“Is this administration going to hold anybody accountable?” Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked The Independent. “This is incompetence, compounded irresponsibility and an ongoing looseness with the truth. It’s pretty astounding.”
While the Senate waits for an inspector’s general report, the administration tasked none other than Elon Musk with investigating how the team added Goldberg to the chat.
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